Just as SemiAccurate predicted months ago, Microsoft has adopted AMD’s Mantle but are now calling it DX12. The way they did it manages to pull stupidity from the jaws of defeat by breaking compatibility in the name of lock-in.

The impetus for all of this mess is the dire situation the XBox One is in. You might recall that it is woefully underpowered compared to the Sony PS4, has roughly 50% less shader performance, far lower memory bandwidth, significantly harder to program for, and tools described by many several as “a mess”. Sony suffers from none of this and is hammering Microsoft in the sales race, to the point where many are openly wondering if the XBox One has failed.

Note: The following is for professional and student level subscribers.

Disclosures: Charlie Demerjian and Stone Arch Networking Services, Inc. have no consulting relationships, investment relationships, or hold any investment positions with any of the companies mentioned in this report.