Source: Xbox / Xbox Series S
The Xbox Series S is an affordable entry into the next generation of gaming for those who don’t want to drop $500 on an Xbox Series X or PlayStation 5. Now, there are discussions about the console hurting Xbox as a company and making life difficult for game developers.
Is the Xbox Series S why games are not dropping on Xbox consoles at launch?
Funcom, the studio behind Dune: Awakening, an open-world survival MMO, described bringing their upcoming game to the Xbox Series S as a “challenge.”
Chief product officer Scott Junor spoke directly about the game’s development on the Xbox Series S while at Gamescom last month, and he said it has not been easy.
So, it’s one of the reasons we’re coming out on PC first. There’s a lot of optimisations we need to do before we release on the Xbox. But yeah, Xbox Series S is a challenge.
Unreal does a lot of the work for us in some ways. What we’re more doing is optimisation of assets, and using various technologies, be it FSR or something else, to replicate frames. We want the game to look stunning on high-end, whether you have a 3070 or a 4090, but we also want it to look good… I don’t think we’ve released our min-spec yet, but y’know powerful cards from a few years ago should be able to run the game. It should look good – it won’t be able to leverage the ultra-spec options, but it’ll still look nice.
The Series S Possibly Causing Other Issues
This latest news comes after many speculated that Xbox Series S could be the reason for Black Myth: Wukong’s delayed release on Xbox consoles.
According to IGN’s reporting, there are no tech issues behind the game’s delay, but it could be due to an exclusivity deal that neither Black Myth: Wukong’s developer, Game Science, nor Sony has confirmed.
Baldur’s Gate 3 was also delayed allegedly due to Microsoft’s parity requirement feature parity for Series X and Series S.
In August 2022, Lee Devonald, a senior character technical artist at WB Games Montréal, called the Series S a “potato” and added that it was holding back an “entire generation of games.”
VFX artist Ian Maclure also had smoke for the Series S, adding in a post on X, formerly Twitter, “It might sound broken, but the reason you are hearing it a lot right now is because MANY [sic] developers have been sitting in meetings for the past year desperately trying to get Series S launch requirements dropped.”
It’s just been a wave of bad news for Xbox, with other games like Enotria: The Last Song, an upcoming Soulslike due to release on PC and PS5 on September 19, announcing via its website that the game will be skipping both the Series X and Series S.
Many immediately believed it was due to the Series S, but according to the game’s developer, it’s because “Microsoft taking months to reply to us when we have the game ready for submission.”
Damn.
What is going on at Xbox?
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