In 2003, Microsoft left the OpenGL Architecture Review Board - showing that they no longer had any interest in the future of OpenGL. Microsoft initiated a fear, uncertainty, and doubt (FUD) campaign against OpenGL around the release of Windows Vista. Ever since then, the network effects have amplified this discrepency until OpenGL has almost disappeared entirely from mainstream PC gaming. The most important network effects are as follows: the more popular API gets better support from graphics card vendors, and graphics programmers are more likely to already know how to use it.ĪPI use was shifted in favor of DirectX by Microsoft's two-pronged DirectX campaign around the launch of XBox 360 and Windows Vista, including the spread of FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt) about the future of OpenGL, and wild exaggeration of the merits of DirectX. It's a positive feedback loop because whenever one API becomes more popular, it keeps becoming more and more popular due to network effects. These are significant markets to leave out, bringing us to the big question: Why does everyone use DirectX?Įveryone uses DirectX because API choice in game development is a positive feedback loop, and it was shifted in favor of DirectX in 2005. With few exceptions, they don't work on competing platforms, such as Playstation, Mac OS, and Wii. Most major PC games now use DirectX, and run on both Windows and XBox 360. Looking at the games scene now, it's clear that this strategy is succeeding. The XBox was a loss leader ( losing over 4 billion dollars), intended to set the stage to dominate the games market in the next generation. When Microsoft entered the gaming market in 2001, it introduced the DirectX Box, or XBox for short. These libraries included Direct3D, DirectInput and DirectSound, and the entire collection came to be known as DirectX. For this reason, in 1995, they created a proprietary set of libraries in order to encourage exclusive games for their new Windows 95 operating system. Ever since MS-DOS, Microsoft has understood that games play an important role in users' choice of operating systems.

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