According to one developer, the Xbox Series S has a “pretty big problem.” There’s a reason the Xbox Series S is so much cheaper than the Xbox Series X and PS5; it’s way less powerful, and this is best represented in the disparity between the GPU of the Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S. The Xbox Series S’s GPU is underwhelming and it’s been posing problems in game development. The latest game to have an issue with the Xbox Series S is Alan Wake 2, which will not offer a performance mode and 60 FPS on Xbox Series S like it will on PS5 and Xbox Series X because of the console’s lack of power. Speaking more about this Remedy’s communication director Thomas Puha, relayed word that the Xbox Series S has a “GPU issue.”
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“Series S, the CPU is pretty much the same as on Series X,” said the developer while speaking to IGN. “But the GPU is an issue. It really is. And then, having less memory is a pretty big problem. And we often get, ‘okay, you make PC games, surely you know how to scale.’ Well, memory is not a problem on PC. It really isn’t. And that’s one of the struggles when you talk about resolution and framerate. It’s just not enough to drop the resolution heavily. That’s what we’re doing on the S and we’re really, really working hard to make sure the visual quality still holds up. “People accept that on a weaker PC the visuals are not going to be as good and your framerate’s not going to be as good. There’s a massive difference on Series S and Series X GPU. And sure, people can mention this game did this so well and all that, and every game is different, and every developer is different. But you can’t have the best of both worlds. You gotta choose where you’re gonna focus.”
The developer continued: “The Series S is $250 and X and PS5 are $500-600. Obviously there’s a massive difference between the power you are getting, right? It’s a lot easier to scale on the PC because of memory, and it’s not like there’s one super PC and one weaker PC. There are like 300 PC configurations in-between, and trust me that’s a massive struggle, but we’ve shipped a lot of PC games so we’re a bit better about that.”
If any of this sounds familiar it’s because this isn’t the first time a developer has brought light to the shortcomings of the Xbox Series S and the problems it poses for developers. Since the console has been revealed it’s been highlighted, and as the generation extends, and games become more advanced, it will be highlighted more and more. Whether it’s bottlenecking game design, we don’t know, but it’s certainly possible.
So far, Microsoft hasn’t had much to say about the Xbox Series S’s shortcomings and the challenges it’s providing developers. Unfortunately for Microsoft, and developers, it’s not a problem that’s going to go away as the console is here for this entire generation.
