Microsoft is using NPUs to automatically capture Xbox game highlights

[Daniel Sims]

In brief: Microsoft is still exploring ways to leverage NPUs for gaming. While AI-based image upscaling might be the most obvious implementation, the company is also attempting to turn Copilot into a gaming assistant, and Xbox Insiders can test features that aim to automatically record memorable moments.

Sources recently informed Windows Central that Xbox Insiders who own Asus ROG Xbox Ally handheld gaming PCs can test a feature that uses the system's embedded NPU to capture notable gaming moments. The functionality works without interrupting gameplay.

While the feature's inner workings remain unclear, it might leverage the Xbox app's screen capture capabilities alongside Copilot to automatically record moments that appear especially intense. The name "Highlight Reels" also suggests that Microsoft's AI could save players the trouble of editing the recordings.

It also remains unclear how Copilot will determine what is noteworthy. Microsoft plans to enable it for all users and on all games in the coming months, but Insiders are currently testing it on a limited selection that includes League of Legends, Dota 2, Call of Duty, Among Us, Fortnite, Rainbow Six Siege, Forza Horizon 5, Palworld, Rocket League, Elden Ring, Overwatch, Lies of P, and Battlefield 6.

If testing is successful, Highlight Reels would presumably become available on all PCs equipped with NPUs that meet Microsoft's Copilot+ standard. Currently, processors with NPUs that meet the 40 TOPS threshold include Qualcomm Snapdragon X, AMD Ryzen AI 300, and Intel Core Ultra 200V or later. Nvidia is also expected to unveil an Arm CPU in Copilot+-branded PCs in the first half of 2026.

The Highlight Reels feature sounds similar to another function Microsoft recently announced for Xbox Insiders on all PCs, which automatically assembles postgame recaps. When players unlock achievements or manually capture in-game moments, the Xbox app sometimes edits them into recaps that appear after users close the game. To customize the feature, head to Settings > App > Postgame recaps.

Microsoft also plans to bring Automatic Super Resolution to ROG Xbox Ally devices in early 2026. The feature, which uses NPUs to apply AI upscaling to PC games, is currently available on Qualcomm Copilot+ PCs. Unlike Nvidia DLSS, it upscales the final image without incorporating motion or temporal data, enabling it to theoretically support all games.

Microsoft's Copilot game assistant is currently in beta for all Xbox Game Bar users.

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Microsoft is using NPUs to automatically capture Xbox game highlights

 

[Theinsanegamer]

And absolutely nobody should be surprised by this. Microsoft showed their hand with the recall "recording everything you do" drama, and they walked it back, now they are slowly reintroducing it everywhere the can. Typical MS.

 

[JMGuy]

Microsoft can’t keep Windows clean and stable and yet this BS this is their focus?

Seriously, I need my OS to function properly and stay out of my way—not chew up resources so it can auto-generate a hype reel.

FU M$ and your nonstop consumer AI push.

Satya, fix the fundamentals already. We want and need trusted computing platforms first and foremost. Stop duct-taping more pointless and unnecessary AI features onto the stack. This obsession is precisely why people keep calling your billion-dollar tech ‘slop’, you twit. Knock it off.

 

[yRaz]

MS needs to learn that the OS needs to stay out of the way of whatever you're trying to do. I feel like we've been conditioned to just accept that this is the way things are supposed to be. I gave a unique perspective as my work computer is Windows 11 and everything in my house runs on Linux. Going from the aggressive advertisement of windows services on 11 to a quiet and peaceful experience of "just work and leave me alone', you wouldn't really notice it unless you had something to compare it to and I see that comparison almost everyday.

The idea that recall is bleeding into other services after all the backlash, while not surprising, is absurd. I don't want to hate windows, but can we just get a product that stays out of our way, doesn't spy on us and lets us just go on about our business? Why is asking for a product that minds its own business so hard?

Microslop doesn't care, but I bet Sony isn't shoving their AI genitalia down their users throats. I honestly don't know, I haven't own a console since N64.

 

[techstrike]

Common MSFT, give us a break ...

 

[Notmare]

Pass.

 

[Theinsanegamer]

MS needs to learn that the OS needs to stay out of the way of whatever you're trying to do. I feel like we've been conditioned to just accept that this is the way things are supposed to be. I gave a unique perspective as my work computer is Windows 11 and everything in my house runs on Linux. Going from the aggressive advertisement of windows services on 11 to a quiet and peaceful experience of "just work and leave me alone', you wouldn't really notice it unless you had something to compare it to and I see that comparison almost everyday.

The idea that recall is bleeding into other services after all the backlash, while not surprising, is absurd. I don't want to hate windows, but can we just get a product that stays out of our way, doesn't spy on us and lets us just go on about our business? Why is asking for a product that minds its own business so hard?

Microslop doesn't care, but I bet Sony isn't shoving their AI genitalia down their users throats. I honestly don't know, I haven't own a console since N64.

Microsoft will “learn” when consumers stop buying. So long as the billions roll in there is no reason to change.

 

[scoffer]

Microsoft can’t keep Windows clean and stable and yet this BS this is their focus?

Seriously, I need my OS to function properly and stay out of my way—not chew up resources so it can auto-generate a hype reel.

FU M$ and your nonstop consumer AI push.

Satya, fix the fundamentals already. We want and need trusted computing platforms first and foremost. Stop duct-taping more pointless and unnecessary AI features onto the stack. This obsession is precisely why people keep calling your billion-dollar tech ‘slop’, you twit. Knock it off.

"Twit"..............You used an incorrect vowel.........I know of a much more apt one.

 

[OortCloud]

Basically they are just trying to reuse the dreaded Recall to help play games. Imagine the processing power this will grind through, analysing screenshots and trying to help you play games... It's so pointless. What is strangest of all is that nobody asked for or wants this, but they just don't seem capable of understanding or listening to what users want anymore. It's garbage like this that means that an emulation of Windows OS API's and DirectX etc etc on a Linux OS with the huge overheads a layer like that will always incur can play games etc at very comparable speeds to the 'native' codebase.

MS's desperation to shoehorn AI into everything and anything is bizarre and has left their consumer reputation in tatters in the last few years. The XBOX is cooked and Windows is a laughing stock. I had a look and Recall is still on our Windows installs. It's switched off but could be back enabled in an update as easy as flipping a switch.

 

[JMGuy]

"Twit"..............You used an incorrect vowel.........I know of a much more apt one.

Lol. Twerp? I mean, I don’t wish the dude ill, I just find his business practices annoying. Windows has a place in my historical heart but it’s crap like this and lack of fundamental fixes that drove me off the platform. Since I quit Windows I’ve spent more time fixing other people’s Windows computing problems than my own. That says a lot.

 

[Megalomaniac]

I got into a battle in Battlefield 4 where I was literally flying a Little Bird, backwards, while being chased by an attack helicopter who was firing guns at me the entire time and I managed to not only avoid the terrain and buildings, but I managed to shoot him down. Had I net gotten it on video, I'd have never believed it.