Microsoft has maintained that the Xbox Series S, its most affordable console, offers adequate performance for the most demanding titles of the current generation. However, developers have frequently raised concerns about the console’s lower specifications, particularly its limited RAM, which contrasts with the higher performance capabilities of the Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5. These limitations have posed significant challenges when porting games to the Xbox Series platform.
Four years ago, it became evident that certain games performed better on the Xbox One X, which featured 12GB of RAM compared to the Series S’s 10GB. As a result, it was clear that the Series S could potentially limit the performance of its more powerful counterpart, the Series X.
What Game Science Said About Why it Has Taken So Long for an Xbox Series Version of Black Myth: Wukong
The Game’s Director, Feng Ji, made the following statement:
“Although there were no big surprises, I still felt a little emotional after getting all of them. Everyone’s fighting power is so terrifying, but the only thing missing is the XBOX robe… It seems a bit wrong (but that’s 10G of shared memory, it’s really impossible to get it without several years of optimization experience) (sad emojis).”
In summary, Ji’s statements directly contradict those made by Spencer and Microsoft, who have consistently insisted that the Series S’s limited processing power and RAM have not posed significant challenges—despite evidence suggesting otherwise.
I tend to align with Ji’s perspective over Microsoft’s. From the moment the game launched on PS5 but not on Xbox Series consoles, it became clear to me that the limitations of the Series S’s RAM were likely the root cause of the issues faced by the Chinese developer in delivering the much awaited Xbox version of the popular title.
It is Not Impossible For Black Myth to Run on Series S…But Game Science has had Issues Getting the Title to Run Properly on PS5. S0…
Ji, to his credit, admits that Game Science would require years of optimization experience to get a decent Series S version of Black Myth: Wukong up and running. He basically is saying that his team, as demonstrated by the PS5 version of the game which continues to be optimized poorly, does not have the proper experience in optimization to get job done.
This does not free Microsoft from the blame for the lack of foresight in crafting a budget machine without the necessary RAM amount to make things easy for third party developers. At this rate, there will never be a version of Wukong: Black Myth on Xbox Series consoles.
Unless…
It is Time to Free the Xbox Series X From the Shackles of the Series S
Microsoft has already given up on its hardware division, and stuck a big middle finger to its fan base when it decided to go Multiplatform with their biggest games. They lose little at this point by lifting the growingly ridiculous requirement that any game that runs on Series X, must also run on Series S.
By removing this policy, Xbox Series X owners would have the opportunity to enjoy games like Wukong from day one, as opposed to waiting months, or in this case, possibly years in order to play the game.
The Xbox Series X is in terms of GPU power more powerful than the PS5, but we have never really seen this gulf in power at play at all during the current generation of games. In fact, a few third party games ran better on Sony’s machine. The Xbox Series S likely caused teams to split optimization efforts while relegating the Series X to 3rd in the line of succession to the PS5, and Series S since the Series X has less consoles sold than the other two hardware configurations.
Yes, Xbox teams have done wonders on the little machine (Indiana Jones, Hellblade 2, etc), but some 3rd parties might not have the time, resources and expertise to pull off similar optimization efforts.
Microsoft should address these issues, at least for third party titles. I would dare venture that most Series S owners have that console as a companion system to the PS5 anyways. It won’t hurt Microsoft to allow Game Science to release Black Myth: Wukong on Xbox Series X alone for those gamers who have invested in that platform.
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