DirectStorage is implemented in several games, including those from Xbox Game Studios and Microsoft Store titles.
DirectStorage is implemented in several games, including those from Xbox Game Studios and Microsoft Store titles.
Several titles are compatible with or expected to gain compatibility through DirectStorage. Xbox games have been confirmed to benefit, and it's likely Windows titles will follow once Windows 11 is released. You might want to check updated lists on platforms like PCGamingWiki for the most current information.
To the best of my knowledge, there are no games available yet. The latest reports suggest the first titles utilizing it will appear in 2023. Game creation is a lengthy process, and features like DirectStorage require developers to adapt their designs accordingly. Even if a developer began working with the DirectStorage SDK on March 22, 2022, it would still be very early in 2023 before seeing games adopt it.
Game development takes considerable time and relies on the technology available at each stage. Typically, it takes around three years to finish a game, meaning if tools became available in 2022, expect the first games using direct storage to appear around 2025. Beyond basic demos, most titles still use level structures based on instances, leveraging today’s SSD speeds to reduce loading times while maintaining traditional methods. Direct storage could eventually unlock significant improvements, but it hasn’t been widely adopted yet—only a few concepts exist. For the past four decades, loading from storage to RAM has been the standard, serving as a familiar approach.
Support everything others have mentioned. It will take some time before DirectStorage appears in games or engines. Although many titles could gain from quicker load times, that won’t be the deciding factor for success. I don’t believe creators are adding it solely for speed. The main advantage will probably lie in open-world experiences that can display more detailed objects during play. Still, a capable system is required to render those higher-quality assets efficiently. For real gains, the engine must be built to load and unload assets faster than before, enabling greater detail without performance loss.
This highlights several important considerations. Many players continue relying on SATA SSDs or even HDDs for their game drives. It's unclear if developers will prioritize NVMe solutions until enough players adopt them, especially with the current console capacities. Besides, most recent titles haven't fully leveraged asset streaming, often sticking to backward compatibility with older platforms like Xbox One or PS4. Also, a significant number of gamers still use older graphics cards that wouldn't gain much from DirectStorage due to limited VRAM. Every decision involves a cost-benefit balance, and unless a developer is committed to a new vision that requires DirectStorage, there will likely be resistance to change and a preference for maintaining existing options.
I don't see it on their site, but if you click Help > System Information in the client, a storage section appears showing SSDs and HDDs (both at zero), but no NVMe count or performance stats. This is likely important data—like the share of customers needing >3 GB/s read speeds. That's a problem with this tech. The advantage isn't universal; it mainly helps those with the newest hardware. For others, it can hurt unless you still make assets work on HDDs. You're spending resources on a feature only a small portion of users will use, while also trying to support everyone. This could grow your game size by adding HDD-optimized assets plus extra content for DirectStorage users, possibly reducing overall sales. Companies won't pay this cost unless it becomes a key selling point, backed by sponsors like AMD/Nvidia or guaranteed to boost revenue. I'm uncertain if people will stop buying games unless DirectStorage becomes mandatory.
I’m taking a different approach here and stating I don’t share the view on the three-year timeline. While some AAA titles take time to launch, most are leveraging existing tools and can incorporate new features each year. I don’t think there’s a solid basis for assuming games without DirectStorage support on Windows today. PC users on Windows 11 are a small group, so even without compatible GPUs, it doesn’t affect the picture. Ray tracing became available quickly after new graphics cards launched, and it was already present in both PlayStation and Xbox releases. The PS5 and Xbox Series X/S both feature DirectStorage for their NVMe drives, which is why some titles struggled on PC. The Spider-Man Remastered release highlights the CPU limitations that still exist despite fast storage options.
I travel from the future to share that the first Direct Storage release is coming next month. The title is Forspoken, a substantial game that demonstrated how DS could drastically reduce loading times on the same hardware. I believe it won't match the potential of this technology in the future—massive open worlds without shader lag. Still, it offers a glimpse into what's achievable. I just wish the launch doesn't have any major issues and we can fully enjoy this feature. Haha
I upgraded to Win11 specifically for this feature and better HDR support. Happy to see games finally releasing with it! I also noticed that only half of the spec released originally, but now we have a standard compression and decompression algorithm for it to use to get the full benefit.
They mentioned it's not that complicated. After the latest Windows 11 update, just refresh your DirectX libraries. If you're using stream objects in your code, they should already work with the new storage system—no major changes needed. The more modern version adds a bit more code, around a dozen lines at most, but it's still straightforward. Writing everything from scratch for each asset would be a huge hassle.