Stalker 2 previews are out, as are a selection of interviews with developers at GSC World (our own interview is coming later today, October 17, by the way)! In one such interview, conducted by Windows Central, the devs chipped in on the Xbox Series S, and how working on it convinced them that any game can reach the console’s memory limits.
“At first, we thought bringing Stalker 2 to the Xbox Series S might be impossible. We have such a big game with so many mechanics, a huge amount of things. It felt like this must be impossible to do. But then we start optimizing, adding new features for streaming information. Unreal Engine has a lot of features for this, but for our game, we really had to squeeze up every megabyte from every piece of system content we could, and now we did it.
“After this experience, I believe it’s possible for any game to reach the Xbox Series S’ memory limits. And yes, not every developer, every studio has the opportunity, or the additional time to optimize for the Xbox Series S. We had to boost our expertise on the optimization side, which also helped the PC build, making it a lot more performant. We have quite low minimum PC requirements for a modern game.
“On the Xbox Series S, we stick to 30 FPS. However, in many cases, we have managed to hit 60 FPS, but it’s not as consistent as the Series X. But we’re looking to get a performance mode for Xbox Series S, to get it to 60 FPS. We think it’s possible.”
The topic of the Xbox Series S has proven a tricky topic of discussion among some game developers, with the obvious limits of the hardware proving daunting. For example, Dune Awakening’s CPO told us at Gamescom making the Series S version “would be a challenge”. So this positive attitude is refreshing, for sure. Even if it won’t run at 60FPS, a cheaper console with Stalker will be a boon for many.
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