Microsoft is launching a new Xbox Series Optimized badge designed to demonstrate which games will run better on the next-gen console. Optimized games can take advantage of Xbox Series X features such as 4 K resolution up to 120fps, DirectStorage, hardware-accelerated raytracking, and quicker load times.

Developers are “using the power [of the Xbox Series X] to optimize their games the way they want,” explains Damon Baker, head of global portfolio at Xbox. “Higher resolutions, crazy frame rates, ray tracing, and yes faster in-game load times.” Software developers will now be able to customize their games for the upcoming Xbox Series X console with higher frame rate of up to 120fps. It's something we're likely to see more widely now, thanks to the enhanced 12 teraflop GPUs in the X-Series. There's also a major ray tracing drive here in games, a technique that's usually used to create real-time light reflections and cinematic effects.

DirectStorage is a new Xbox Series X I / O system designed to use hardware compression and SSD to increase load times and reduce pressure on the CPU. DirectStorage explicitly eliminates CPU overheads from intensive I / O operations such as streaming vast assets to dynamically load sections of an open-world game.It is part of DirectX and is intended to free up the CPU to work on areas such as physics or to bring more NPCs to the scene.