With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Indian populace saw a higher penetration of casual gamers as most of the individuals were resigned to stay at home which encouraged them to indulge in PC and Mobile gaming. As time passed, more and more gamers emerged, with a lot of them evolving into ‘serious gamers’, and as of today, the gaming market in India is poised for a huge opportunity and expected to grow further. Not only that, with one of the world's youngest populations, India is set to be one of the world's top gaming markets which is expected to further accentuate demand for next-gen gaming peripherals and storage solutions.
According to a consumer study conducted by Western Digital late last year called 'Next-Gen Gamers' research, gamers are quickly graduating to PC-based gaming in their pursuit of an immersive experience, however, paucity of storage space, slow game loading, network issues, etc. continue to be critical matters that often hinder gameplay.
Below are a few key findings from the research:
- Excitement, fun, and challenge are the key motivators for PC gaming, however, more than half (57%) have cited slow storage as a key factor for poor game experience
- A majority of gamers responding to the survey also highlighted slow game loading (51%) and bandwidth issues (51%) as main pain points
- Slow storage remains the biggest bottleneck for fast game loading, gamers feel that RAM (52%), Graphics Card (43%), and Processor (41%) also have a role to play in the overall gaming experience
- The survey also shows that 59% of gamers have identified slow loading times as a primary reason for impacting their gameplay
- Two in every five gamers have made the unbearable decision of deleting their old titles due to running out of storage
- The survey found that, every three in five gamers store their game libraries within their PCs and every 3 in 10 gamers store more than 10 titles in their PCs
- Delving deeper into what qualifies as a great gaming experience, nearly 72% of serious gamers felt that quick load times were crucial
- 44% of gamers enjoyed games that loaded seamlessly, and 54% of gamers look for good quality graphics that offer a realistic gaming experience
These data points further underline the need for high-performing storage solutions to provide a better gaming experience. To help gamers enhance their gameplay and adapt to the evolving gaming landscape heralded by the next generation of games, Western Digital introduced a series of new products under its WD_BLACK portfolio of storage solutions in December 2020. These include the WD_BLACK SN850 NVMe SSD - Western Digital's first NVMe solid-state drive (SSD), and the WD_BLACK AN1500 NVMe SSD Add-in-Card. Western Digital also offers portable gaming drives including the WD_BLACK™ P10 Game Drive, P10 Game Drive for Xbox™ and P50 Game Drive SSD
Below are the highlights of these exciting products bound to make a gamers’ experience fruitful:
WD_BLACK™ SN850 NVMe SSD – Designed to feature the unprecedented performance of PCIe Gen4 technology, this future-ready product will deliver fast read/write speeds up to 7000/5300MB/s (1TB model). Built with the WD_BLACK G2 controller and optimized for top-tier and high-intensive gaming (not intended for NAS or server environments), the WD_BLACK SN850 NVMe SSD will enable gamers to achieve supreme PC performance. It reduces game load times and transfers files faster than its predecessor while using brand new cache technology. In addition to high performance, the WD_BLACK SN850 NVMe SSD also delivers improved low queue-depth performance over its predecessor, allowing both gaming and everyday users to experience smoother loading of applications. And, for the ultimate in aesthetics and customization, there will be an optional RGB-enabled (Windows® only) heatsink model that cuts down on thermal throttling. The WD_BLACK SN850 NVMe SSD non-heatsink version will be available in 500GB, 1TB, and 2TB capacities
WD_BLACK™ AN1500 NVMe SSD Add-in-Card – For gamers looking to achieve next-gen performance in a current-gen setup, this fully bootable plug and play add-in card is one of the fastest PCIe Gen3 x8 solutions in the market. Powered by two internal SSDs in RAID 0 and PCIe Gen3 x8 technology, gamers can experience read speeds up to 6500 MB/s and write speeds up to 4100MB/s (2TB and 4TB models), giving them fast gameplay so they can spend less time waiting and more time playing. Customizable RGB lighting (Windows® only) complements your current rig while an integrated heatsink combats thermal throttling to help maintain peak performance. The WD_BLACK AN1500 NVMe SSD Add-in-Card is available in 1TB, 2TB, and 4TB capacities
WD_BLACK™ P50 Game Drive SSD - Offers read speeds of up to 2000MB/s and up to 2TB of storage, so you spend less time waiting to get back in the game and more time actually playing your game collection. Designed from the ground up with gamers in mind, it is designed with a SuperSpeed USB (20Gb/s) interface to be fully compatible with new gaming components released with the same connectivity
WD_BLACK™ P10 Game Drive - Gives your console or PC the performance-enhancing tools it needs to keep your competitive edge. It’s a top-tier external HDD in capacities up to 5TB, built specifically for gamers looking to expand the potential of their console or PC by saving their game library in an on-the-go form factor
WD_BLACK™ P10 Game Drive for Xbox™ - Built specifically for gamers looking to expand the potential of their Xbox and comes in capacities up to 5TB to save up to 125 games
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