The Xbox Series S GPU and memory configuration presented a “big problem” in the development of Remedy Entertainment’s upcoming survival horror game, Alan Wake 2.
During a recent interview, Remedy Entertainment Communications Director, Thomas Puha, was asked whether a console like the Xbox Series S is a net positive in the eyes of the studio. He responded by stating that having to develop Alan Wake 2 for the Xbox Series S gave rise to some major issues.
Puha elaborated further by saying that, with the Xbox Series S, the CPU is pretty close to the one in the Xbox Series X, as there isn’t a massive difference in processing power. However, the GPU is an issue, he said. In addition, he mentioned that having less memory to work with is a pretty big problem.
Furthermore, Puha talked about scalability, and how it is often brought up in relation to making PC games. He stated that memory is not a problem on PC. He pointed out that there’s a massive difference in power between the Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S. It’s a lot easier to scale on PC because of memory not being a concern on the platform. He added that there’s isn’t just one super PC and one weaker PC. Rather, there are 300 PC configurations in-between. While he admitted that dealing with a vast array of configurations is a massive struggle, he said that Remedy Entertainment has shipped a lot of PC games, and is, therefore, in a better position to tackle it.
He mentioned that the studio has worked really hard to get the Xbox Series S to run Alan Wake 2 at a stable frame rate of 30 fps, while trying to maintain good visual quality. However, he said that those wanting to see the game at its best in “full next-gen form” will need to play on hardware that is capable of handling it.
