In 2024, when a new game is announced, you can usually count on it to be released on PC, PlayStation, and possibly Switch. But it’s become a bit less of a guarantee that new games or ports will land on Xbox consoles, and it seems Microsoft is aware of this and is asking devs why…
The main difference is the most important thing for gaming. Less than half the CU’s of the X (just below 6600 and 6800 desktop GPUs respectively).
Plus there’s the ram 8gb vram on the S vs 10 on the X is not that much of a deal but having the remainder for CPU usage being 2GBs is shocking.
Especially since it appears system software on the X occupies around 2,5 GB. Obviously they must have restricted that for the S but still the RAM available is ridiculously low.
Finally third party developers are not required to figure out how to run their games on Xbox unlike Microsoft. For all it’s technical marvel FS2020/4 is not a killer app, especially on consoles.
And the problem is further compounded by the Series S outselling the X by around 3:1, and the PS5 outselling the Xbox Series X And S combined by around 2:1. So the series X install base is 6 times smaller than the PS5.
So having to spend extra dev time to get it to work on the Series S if you want to release on Xbox at all, along with only a fraction of those players getting to experience the intended look and feel of the game, it’s no wonder they’re skipping it.
This all does indicate an issue for Sony though, with the price of the PS5 Pro. People were told that the Series S would play all the games the Series X can, and they flocked to the cheaper console. Now Sony are pushing a console for £800. I don’t think it’s going to do very well.