Almost a year ago came reports that developers had been trying to get Xbox Series S launch requirements dropped. Microsoft have mandated that new games for the Xbox platform have to be released and functional on both Xbox Series X and S – be they from first or third parties.
The Series S is only around one-third as powerful as the Series X and around two-thirds as powerful as the previous Generation’s Xbox One X. In graphics card equivalence, it’s about the same as an entry-level Nvidia GTX 1650 from back in 2019.
Multi-platform games have to be “optimised for the lowest performer,” which often means the Series S. Doing so impacts the fundamental design structure of a game for it to be made to work on weaker systems – thus limiting their potential.
This is being reflected in a real-world scenario with “Baldur’s Gate 3” which is coming to PS5 in a few days but is being held up on Xbox platforms by developer Larian Studios because they’re unable to get split-screen co-op mode to run to at acceptable levels as the console simply doesn’t have enough VRAM.
On Thursday on Twitter (via Kotaku) the developer confirmed they met with Xbox boss Phil Spencer and have dropped the mode from the Series S.
Spencer has now spoken with Eurogamer where he says the company remains resolute in its stance that all games that work on Xbox Series X have to work on the Series S, even if it means ‘S’ users may have to sacrifice some of the bells and whistles for a cheaper machine:
“On S, specifically, we designed the box with similarities to X, and clear places where we’re targeting a different performance, and we’re taking feedback from devs including Larian, I met with them today to talk about it and I’m confident we’re going to find a good solution and we’re going to learn.
I don’t see a world where we drop S. In terms of parity, I don’t think you’ve heard from us or Larian, that this was about parity. I think that’s more that the community is talking about it.
There are features that ship on X today that do not ship on S, even from our own games, like ray-tracing that works on X, it’s not on S in certain games. So for an S customer, they spent roughly half what the X customer bought, they understand that it’s not going to run the same way.
I want to make sure games are available on both, that’s our job as a platform holder and we’re committed to that with our partners. And I think we’re gonna get there with Larian. So I’m not overly worried about that, but we’ve learned some stuff through it.
Having an entry level price point for console, sub-$300, is a good thing for the industry. I think it’s important, the Switch has been able to do that, in terms of kind of the traditional plug-into-my-television consoles. I think it’s important. So we’re committed.”
Spencer also says in the interview that the price of current-gen consoles won’t come down over time like with past generations, and a mid-gen refresh is unlikely this time around as it would create “a ton of complexity for creators and players”.
