Xbox Says Devs Should "Plan Better" To Get Games Running On Series S
The Xbox Series S might be a great deal for gamers, but not so much for developers. This cheaper hardware doesn't just keep its price down by omitting a disc drive, but also by compromising the performance, giving devs less to work with.
But despite these headaches, Xbox has no plans to ditch its budget console. Speaking after the Xbox Games Showcase, Microsoft Studios head Matt Booty makes it clear that the company won't allow devs to skip the Series S and launch exclusively on the Series X. Instead, he says these issues can be avoided if the developers "plan better", suggesting that the performance of games on the console will improve with experience.
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"Is it more work? Sure," says Booty, speaking with Axios about the troubles devs have faced when developing for the Series S alongside Series X, PS5, and PC. He goes on to say that devs should find it easier once they've moved onto their second game for the platform, since they can "plan better, knowing where some of the sharp corners are."
This comes as many games that do run on Series S often struggle to reach 60fps at launch, even with reduced visuals. Often, we're seeing 60fps added further down the line, and never in a joint framerate/visuals mode like Series X players enjoy.
However, sometimes sacrificing visuals or framerate isn't enough. Recently, Baldur's Gate 3 developer Larian revealed that an Xbox launch hadn't been confirmed yet because it couldn't guarantee an adequate performance on Series S - a requirement for launching on Series X.
"We’ve been unable to get splitscreen co-op to work to the same standard on both Xbox Series X and S, which is a requirement for us to ship," said Larian, speaking to
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