For players, the Xbox Series S is a great idea. A cheaper version of the console that sacrifices some power to reduce cost. On the development side, however, it's a different story, and longtime Tekken developer Katsuhiro Harada could do without it, and he has no problem saying so.
During a group discussion with other industry heavyweights at the SKY31 event in Seoul, South Korea, Harada quite literally used the opportunity to get his thoughts off his chest. "There's something I really want to say while I have the floor," he says, per InvenGlobal. "Since a senior Xbox official is actually in attendance here today, I wish hardware like the Xbox Series S wouldn't be released."
Tell us how you really feel, eh? He goes into his rationale after. "Low memory is an issue, but the hardest part is that it's a device so similar to Series X while having awkwardly lower performance," he explains.
"When porting to Switch 2, developers can shift their mindset to 'Switch 2 is a distinct device for Nintendo fans!'," he adds. "But with Xbox, after delivering your absolute best output, it feels like having to do extra work for a slightly weaker child."
I can see this perspective. The Series S requires its own particular round of optimisation, on top of whatever the devs needed to do to get their release working smoothly on the Series X. It's resource intensive, and another of the panelists, Pawel Sasko, associate game director at CD Projekt Red actually remarks that it "forces us to optimize our code very cleanly."
Harada's frustration is emboldened by the fact a lot of people use the Sereis S, especially stateside. "In markets like the US, there are more Series S users than Series X users, so we can't just cut corners," he says. "Yet after launch, Series S users direct their complaints at us developers rather than Microsoft, asking 'Why is texture resolution lower only on Series S?'"
Yeah, that would grind your gears. Sacrifices must be made due to hardware limitations, and studios can only do so much for their games. Getting something like Crimson Desert running on a Series S is no easy feat, and devs can only do so much.
People should be aware of that before criticizing what they're playing. But more options are generally good, and a middle ground that's less cynical seems plausible here. Harada jokes about us getting a Helix S, and it just might happen. I look forward to his rant if it does.
