In year three of the Xbox Series console’s lifespan, gamers and industry professionals are still debating how the Xbox Series S will affect upcoming titles. Since its creation, the console, which was first known as Lockhart, has drawn various complaints and concerns from programmers. The biggest criticism of the console was that it didn’t have as many features as its rival, the Xbox Series X, which might have an impact on how well it played games. Concerns regarding the console’s limited RAM have been raised by developers, who fear that it will prevent them from making bigger, more complicated games, which will result in problems like stuttering and extended load times.
The Xbox Series S’s decreased storage capacity is another issue, in addition to the RAM’s limitations. Concerns concerning the device’s compatibility with specific games and the potential need for creators to produce a separate version of their games for the platform, which would use a lot of resources, have also been raised by several developers. Recently, developers have opened out about how challenging it is to create games on the Xbox Series S, especially when it comes to memory constraints. The creators of Control and Alan Wake, Remedy Entertainment, warned that the console’s limited RAM would cause problems with game performance and development. The compatibility constraints for the console have also been mentioned as posing a substantial challenge by other developers.
Below is a timeline of the Xbox Series S complaints made public after launch:
- April 2020: rumors surface that Microsoft is creating the Lockhart, a less expensive and less potent version of the Xbox Series X.
- August 2020: According to reports, Lockhart will be unveiled as the Xbox Series S. However, some analysts and business professionals worry about the console’s inferior specs versus the Xbox Series X.
- October 2020: Worries regarding the Xbox Series S’s less RAM and how it would affect game development continue to grow.
- November 2020: Release of the Xbox Series S, to some developers’ dismay due to the system’s lesser RAM and compatibility difficulties.
- March 2021: Remedy Entertainment, citing challenges with the Xbox Series S’s constrained RAM, expressed reservations about creating for the system.
- May 2021: According to reports, a sizable number of game creators are pleading with Microsoft to end the mandate that Xbox Series S games be compatible with each other, noting the console’s inferior specs.
- October 2022, Rocksteady Games’ Lee Denovald referred to the Series S as a “albatross around the neck of development.”
- March 2023: Concerns about the Xbox Series S are still being voiced by developers, particularly with memory constraints and compatibility needs.
The Debate is Not New
Back in October, a game developer claimed that multiple studios are trying to get rid of the requirement that their games must launch on the Xbox Series S. VFX artist Ian Maclure made this discovery in response to a post by Jeff Gerstmann. He said, “The argument that Series S is holding back next-gen games seems really broken to me.” Maclure, who worked on I Am Fish for the Xbox Series X|S before, said that many developers have been dying for a year to get rid of the Series S requirement.
Maclure explained that studios have already gone through a development cycle in which Series S was a problem for production. Now that games are being made for new consoles, developers don’t want to do the same thing twice. At the time of writing, Maclure’s account is no longer public.
The Xbox Series S is a low-cost console that will sell for $300, $200 less than the Series X. But this comes with some trade-offs, since the console aims for 1440p resolution instead of the Series X’s native 4K. Also, the console doesn’t have a disc drive, so you can only play games digitally. This is where Game Pass comes in.
Counterpoint
One developer contends that the Xbox Series S’s lesser specifications are not impeding the creation of 9th generation consoles, which is the opposing position. Independent developer Gavin Stevens, who goes by the Twitter handle @GTS Tweets, thinks that the difficulties that developers are describing are not that substantial. In tweets addressing the matter, he makes the case that the CPU and architecture are what matter for down porting and that the RAM difference is offset by lower resolution and settings.
Stevens further asserts that the SSD’s size is not a major concern because it was designed to be that size to strike a balance between pricing and the typical user’s game collection. He thinks the most important element is the real IO. The real issue here is effort; most developers might not even try to compress.
Although Gavin Stevens’ experience as an independent game creator is valuable, it is important to take into account the bigger picture of issues raised by other developers and business professionals regarding the Xbox Series S. Although the console’s lower resolution and settings might somewhat make up for the memory deficit, the worries of a RAM shortage and compatibility problems cannot be readily discounted. Many creators and specialists in the industry, notably Remedy Entertainment, a well-known game production business, have voiced these concerns.
However, given that several developers have expressed concerns about the console’s smaller storage capacity and how it would potentially affect game development, the claim that the SSD size is not a huge issue may not hold up in practice. A further indication that there are serious problems with creating games on the system is the fact that many game developers are asking Microsoft to stop requiring compatibility with the Xbox Series S.
The claim that “most programmers won’t bother to compress” may oversimplify the situation, it is important to note. While compression helps lessen some of the worries about having insufficient Memory and storage space, it might not be a perfect answer. Developers may need more time and money to implement solutions that cover all areas of concern.
Possible Solutions
The Xbox Series S’s development problems have been addressed with a number of different proposals. Allowing developers to skip the Xbox Series S when persistent problems only affect that system is one option. Another suggestion is to refrain from buying games that are released elsewhere because they have not been “optimized” for the platform.
However, in cases where both are impractical, we advise classifying support for the Series S as being provided either natively or via the cloud. In cases when a game cannot function properly on the Series S but can on the Series X, we also suggest enabling cloud-based Ala cart game purchases. We further suggest requiring that it be made very apparent in the game’s packaging, labeling, and marketing that, in these circumstances, it will only be accessible via the Series S in the cloud. Furthermore, it can be useful to guarantee specific FPS/resolution benchmarks on the Series S for 9th generation cloud-only games.
This answer may appear simple, but it addresses a bigger issue of how to handle the Series S’s development problems. Given that the Series S is the console that has sold the most units for the platform this generation, skipping it totally for some 9th generation games is not conceivable. While the lack of native games on the Series S may disappoint players, there has been enough pushback from developers to demonstrate their genuine annoyance. They don’t care if you boycott a game on the less popular console, especially if you’re willing to ignore those customers entirely if you have to.
It’s also crucial to keep in mind that not all gamers who play on competing systems will join the conflict, as some already think that the S will be a development bottleneck, which is why they bought a PS5 in the first place. Our suggested approach may not be ideal, but it is imperative to address the Series S’s development issues given that developers appear eager to postpone releasing games for Xbox as a result, in addition to speaking out about them.
