Earlier this month, developer Remedy confirmed the Xbox Series S version of the hotly anticipated Alan Wake 2 lacks the 60 frames per second performance mode the Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 versions launch with later in October.
I’m glad to say that Alan Wake 2 will have a Performance mode on PS5 and Xbox Series X. The game has been built from the beginning as a 30fps experience focusing on visuals and ambiance, but somehow we have managed to include a solid Performance mode. We’ll talk details later.
— Thomas Puha (@RiotRMD) September 27, 2023
The news was the latest in a string of rough headlines for Microsoft’s cheaper console, which is at the heart of split-screen issues that have held up the Xbox launch of smash hit Dungeons and Dragons role-playing game Baldur’s Gate 3.
Xbox boss Phil Spencer has insisted games launch across the more powerful Xbox Series X and the less powerful but cheaper Xbox Series S, both of which are approaching their third year on sale. But the underpowered Xbox Series S represents an intensifying headache for Microsoft as more and more developers look to make the most of the power of the PS5 and Xbox Series X.
That’s exactly what Remedy is trying to do with Alan Wake 2, which is a graphical showcase on current-gen consoles. In a recent episode of IGN’s Next-Gen Console Watch, below, Remedy’s communications director Thomas Puha talked openly about the challenge the studio faces getting Alan Wake 2 running well on the Xbox Series S.
“Series S, the CPU is pretty much the same as on Series X,” Puha said. “But the GPU is an issue. It really is. And then, having less memory is a pretty big problem. And we often get, ‘okay, you make PC games, surely you know how to scale.’ Well, memory is not a problem on PC. It really isn’t. And that’s one of the struggles when you talk about resolution and framerate. It’s just not enough to drop the resolution heavily. That’s what we’re doing on the S and we’re really, really working hard to make sure the visual quality still holds up.
“People accept that on a weaker PC the visuals are not going to be as good and your framerate’s not going to be as good. There’s a massive difference on Series S and Series X GPU. And sure, people can mention this game did this so well and all that, and every game is different, and every developer is different. But you can’t have the best of both worlds. You gotta choose where you’re gonna focus.
“The Series S is $250 and X and PS5 are $500-600. Obviously there’s a massive difference between the power you are getting, right? It’s a lot easier to scale on the PC because of memory, and it’s not like there’s one super PC and one weaker PC. There are like 300 PC configurations in-between, and trust me that’s a massive struggle, but we’ve shipped a lot of PC games so we’re a bit better about that.
“We’ve really worked hard on getting S to run at a solid 30 and tried to maintain a good visual quality. But if you want to see the game at its best in full next-gen glory, it’s going to be on the machines that have the hardware grunt to enable that.”
Puha isn’t the first developer to express concern about the Xbox Series S. In October, a VFX artist who had worked on an Xbox Series X and S game said in a now-deleted tweet that “many developers have been sitting in meetings for the past year desperately trying to get Series S launch requirements dropped”.
“Studios have been through one development cycle where Series S turned out to be an albatross around the neck of production, and now that games are firmly being developed with new consoles in mind, teams do not want to repeat the process,” the developer said.
In interviews with press including IGN, Spencer has deflected questions about whether Xbox Series S is holding developers back, and rejected calls for developers to be allowed to release their games on Xbox Series X only. In an August interview with Eurogamer, Spencer said: “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.”
It seems unlikely, then, that Microsoft will let publishers and developers release their games on the Xbox Series X alone any time soon, as it views the cheaper S as a key component of its console strategy, helping Xbox reach a broader range of players. Indeed the Xbox Series S has proved surprisingly popular within the Xbox Series sales mix. But this means engineers face an uphill battle getting their games optimised for the S.
In a recent interview with Axios, Xbox Game Studios boss Matt Booty admitted developing for Xbox Series S alongside the X, PS5 and PC is “more work”. But he also said developers 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”.
For Remedy and Alan Wake 2, however, the Xbox Series S may never be up to the task.
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
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