Key findings
- The difficulties in optimizing titles for the Xbox Series S are well documented, but no developer has openly spoken out against the system.
- On Twitter, a former Naughty Dog and Rocksteady developer wrote that he wished the Series S had “never existed.”
- It’s unclear which titles they were involved in optimizing for the Series S or if it’s simply general frustration with the game development process for a weaker system.
It’s no secret that the Xbox Series S isn’t the easiest console to optimize games for, but never has a developer been so open and negative about the system. That is, until Del Walker, a former Naughty Dog and Rocksteady developer, took to Twitter to voice his displeasure with Microsoft’s budget next-gen console.
Responding to a thread summarizing the week’s Xbox news, including Indiana Jones and the Great Circle coming to PS5 and Avowed running at 30 frames per second, Walker wished the Series S didn’t exist. No, really.
I wish the Series S never existed, man. It’s so annoying to optimize the console – I expect Xbox to skip even more games in the future, unfortunately.
That’s not exactly a glowing recommendation for the Series S, and is possibly a sentiment shared by other developers, although they haven’t yet expressed themselves in the same way. It’s important to note that, contrary to popular belief, Walker was not involved in optimizing Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League for the Series S, so it’s unclear exactly which titles he was involved in.
Things were bumpy for the S series
Back in 2021, Remedy’s communications director Thomas Puha noted that optimizing the Series S is not as easy as it sounds. In an interview, Puha shared the following:
“Xbox Series S is no different than previous generations where the lowest spec system ends up dictating some of the things you’re going to do because you have to run it on that system, right? It’s very easy to say just lower your resolution and texture quality and you’re good to go, but it’s nowhere near that simple.”
Elsewhere, the difficulties of bringing Baldur’s Gate 3 to Series S were widely reported in the run-up to launch, with Microsoft even going so far as to send its own team of engineers to assist Larian.
Ultimately, though, it’s less likely that developers really “hate” the Series S and more likely that they’re annoyed at having to execute their visions on both a high-end system and a budget one. Game development isn’t easy, and schedules and budgets are tight, so it’s probably a case of general frustration. It’s good that there’s an affordable entry-level next-gen system, although it’s unfortunate that it’s coming out at the same time as hardware monsters.
