The team behind Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl initially thought the Xbox Series S couldn’t handle the game.
GSC Game World, the developers, faced challenges with the Xbox Series S because it’s not as powerful as the Series X. They worked hard to make it fit by using clever “streaming” tech. “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,” they shared with Windows Central. “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.”
Now, they think any game can work on Series S with enough effort, though not every developer can afford the time or cost to do so. The game aims for 60fps on Series X but hits a steady 30fps on Series S. It might dip to 55fps when things get hectic, but they are still making tweaks. They’re hoping for a performance mode to make 60fps happen more often, saying, “We think it’s possible.”
Some developers have complained that supporting Series S is tricky and might cause issues. Baldur’s Gate 3 had to delay its release because of problems with the Series S version.
Stalker 2, made by GSC during the Ukraine conflict, is arriving this November and will be free on Game Pass at launch. People who tried the game found it spooky yet oddly exciting.
