PC gaming has been a strong focus for Microsoft in recent years but the company is looking to step things up in 2021 and beyond. In a new Xbox Wire post, Xbox Game Studios head Matt Booty confirmed that the developer revenue share for PC titles sold on the Microsoft Store would be increased to 88 percent from the current 70 percent. This change will go into effect on August 1st.

“A clear, no-strings-attached revenue share means developers can bring more games to more players and find greater commercial success from doing so,” said Booty. Auto HDR technology, introduced with the launch of Xbox Series X/S, is also coming to PC. It’s currently in testing for over 1,000 DirectX-based titles. DirectStorage is also coming to PC to provide “vastly reduced load times and more expansive and detailed virtual worlds.”

Microsoft’s PC offerings over the past few years have been fairly strong. Microsoft Flight Simulator is currently exclusive to the platform and has been receiving new airports, points of interest and other content since launch. Age of Empires 4 is also coming to the platform later this year with new civilizations, naval battles and new campaigns.

Microsoft was one of the big players to pull out of GDC 2020 before the conference’s official postponement to Summer. However, it still has new details to share on past projects and what’s coming next. As part of Game Stack Live, there will be two Mixer livestreams on March 17th and 18th starting at 10 AM PT to share content originally meant for GDC.

The livestream on March 17th includes topics like “How The Coalition built Gears 5 to be more accessible” and “Maximizing impact and reach for your independent games with the ID@Xbox team.” It’s the March 18th livestream that should prove more interesting. One panel will talk about how Xbox Series X and Project xCloud equal a “New Chapter in Gaming”.

There will also be a panel on new features of DirectX including Raytracing (which the Xbox Series X supports), mesh shading and more. While there may not be any ground-breaking new details on the console – such as release date, price or major reveals – it could still be worth tuning in for the technical side of things. Stay tuned for more details next week.

DirectX 12 has reached near mythical status by this point. As the newest set of APIs by Microsoft for gaming, it has been hyped to high heavens more than any previous DirectX, mostly because it has often been used as a Hail Mary/Get out Of Jail Free card by loyalists of Microsoft’s Xbox One, who claim that its introduction to the console will help bridge the hardware gap between it and the PS4.

That said, DirectX 12 is still a big deal, and especially for PC gaming. So if you have been wondering exactly when it will finally ship out, wonder no more- it will be available to the general public some time next year, as Microsoft has confirmed that it will be launched with Windows 10, and be included with it.

“The final version of Windows 10 will ship with DirectX 12,” the DirectX team said on their MSN blog. “And we think it’s going to be awesome.”

We think it’ll be awesome too, although it may face the pressure of some undue hype.

Regardless, it’s almost here. Hold on tight, PC and Xbox gamers.

No word yet on if it will be made available to Windows 7/8/8.1 users, but we’ll keep you posted.