Former PlayStation boss Jim Ryan once famously said that “reduced spec” consoles like Xbox Series S aren’t a good idea, and if ongoing optimization headaches are any indication, he was right. Come to think of it, Ryan — who was often criticized for his takes — was right about a lot of things, including Xbox Game Pass, but I digress.
Xbox Series S optimization issues are annoying devs and hurting players
Microsoft mandates simultaneous game launches on both the Series X and its inferior counterpart, much to the chagrin of some developers, who have openly talked about the nuisance this creates. Devs have come under fire from hardcore fans and even journalists for their takes, but I’ll take the opinion of an actual game dev over Twitter experts and blog writers.
Over the weekend, former Naughty Dog and Respawn dev Del Walker was the latest to draw some ire after he tweeted that he wishes the Xbox Series S didn’t exist. Walker said that the console itself is a great piece of hardware, but having to optimize current-gen games for it is pretty “annoying.” Walker also reckons that more and more games will end up skipping Xbox platforms for this reason.
Walker isn’t wrong. Xbox consoles struggle to sell, so devs are faced with the decision of skipping the platform altogether or waste their resources optimizing for a platform they’ll see negligible sales on. Developers who aren’t blessed with massive bank accounts are understandably going to choose the former.
Heck, even a major studio like Larian ended up delaying Baldur’s Gate 3 on Xbox Series X|S, so finances might not even be the sole consideration. Developers are increasingly happy to ship on the PS5 and delay their games on the Xbox. Look no further than Black Myth: Wukong.
Final Fantasy 16‘s PS5 console exclusivity is up, but the game’s only releasing on the PC for now. We’re offering no prizes for guessing why that might be.
“Creating a special low priced, reduced spec console is something that has not had great results in the past,” Ryan said. “We’ve considered that option, and seen other executives who have attempted this, discover how problematic it is.”
As I said, Ryan was right. Microsoft hamstrung Xbox with the Series S and its restrictive mandates.
