Microsoft

Studios ask for Xbox Series S development to not be mandatory, according to a dev

VFX Artist Ian Maclure says there have been meetings with Microsoft to get rid of the requirement

Update: Oct 20th, 2022 16:50 EDT

Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S are two of the models for the latest generation of consoles that Microsoft currently has in the market. Since the launch of the cheaper version, several voices - including that of David Cage from Quantic Dream - have warned about the possibility of the Series S creating a bottleneck for development. Answering journalist Jeff Gertsmann, who mentioned he thinks this argument seems wrong, developer Ian Maclure from Bossa Studios has said that many studios want to get rid of the Series S launch requirements.

Between the tweets (that are no longer available) Maclure said that “It might sound broken, but the reason you are hearing it a lot right now is because MANY developers have been sitting in meetings for the past year desperately trying to get Series S launch requirements dropped”

According to the developer, studios have had to work around one development cicle in which the Series S “turned out to be an albatross around the neck of production”, especially now that games are designed with the newest consoles in mind. He adds that development teams “do not want to repeat the process”

The whole “Series S is holding back next-gen games” argument seems really broken to me. Most of these games also come to PC and already have to cover a wide variety of configs. Like go look at the Steam Hardware Survey sometime. Lots of older stuff with significant percentages.
— Jeff Gerstmann (@jeffgerstmann) October 20, 2022

Quantic Dream: “I must confess I’m not a big fan of this situation”

In 2020, David Cage said that a situation in which you have to develop a game with two console specifications in mind while they were of the same family of devices was confusing. “When a manufacturer offers two consoles with different specs, there is a strong chance that most developers will focus on the lower-end version to avoid doing two different versions.”

“I must confess that I am really not a big fan of this situation. I think it is confusing for developers, but also for players, and although I can understand the commercial reasons behind this choice (a difference of €200 on the street price) I think the situation is questionable.”

Even more recently, Lee Devonald (Rocksteady) added the case of Gotham Knights having only 30 fps to these worries: ““I wish gamers understood what 60fps means, in terms of all of the things they *lose* to make the game run that fast. Especially taking into account that we have a current-gen console that’s not much better than a last gen one.”

The Xbox Series S is currently available for $299.99, although that price is lowered constantly by sales.

Source | VGC