As I wrote in our previous Windows 11 story, Microsoft announced that DirectStorage will be now exclusive to this new operating system. Since this is a hot topic, I believe it deserves its own article. After all, a lot of outlets and Microsoft itself have already overhyped this feature.
As Microsoft stated in a new blog post:
“With DirectStorage, which will only be available with Windows 11, games can quickly load assets to the graphics card without bogging down the CPU. This means you’ll get to experience incredibly detailed game worlds rendered at lightning speeds, without long load times. “DirectStorage Optimized” Windows 11 PCs are configured with the hardware and drivers needed to enable this amazing experience.”
So there you have it everyone. As we’ve seen numerous times, Microsoft will be locking specific features behind its latest operating system. This will obviously force some gamers to upgrade to Windows 11, especially when developers will start using DirectStorage.
Speaking of which, and since DirectStorage won’t come out on Windows 10, it will be interesting to see its adoption rate. Prior to this announcement, a lot of gamers were looking forward to it. However, developers will be now targeting a small group of gamers with this feature. And, don’t expect triple-A companies to release triple-A games that can be played by only a few PC gamers.
In short, this will harm PC gaming in the short term as there will be numerous developers who will not use it. I mean, look at DX12 and its adoption rate. DX12 came out in 2015 and we are still getting DX11 games from major triple-A companies. And while Windows 11 will be a free upgrade… so was Windows 10 when it came out… and look where we are.
So yeah, GG Microsoft!
John is the founder and Editor in Chief at DSOGaming. He is a PC gaming fan and highly supports the modding and indie communities. Before creating DSOGaming, John worked on numerous gaming websites. While he is a die-hard PC gamer, his gaming roots can be found on consoles. John loved – and still does – the 16-bit consoles, and considers SNES to be one of the best consoles. Still, the PC platform won him over consoles. That was mainly due to 3DFX and its iconic dedicated 3D accelerator graphics card, Voodoo 2. John has also written a higher degree thesis on the “The Evolution of PC graphics cards.”
Contact: Email