Highlights
- Technical limitations of the Xbox Series S are causing delays for developers like Larian Studios in getting split-screen working for Baldur's Gate 3.
- Developers need to consider the technical limitations from the beginning of development, which is something that nobody wants to think about when making a game.
- The limitations of the Xbox Series S make it difficult to maintain a consistent 60 FPS and require careful attention from the development team.
A recent tweet from Remedy's Communications Director, Thomas Puha, in which he commented on the situation of Larian Studios taking more time to get Baldur's Gate 3's split-screen working on the Xbox Series S, has sparked a lot of discussion about whether the technical limitations of the Xbox Series S are holding back developers this generation.
The original tweet that Thomas Puha addresses comes from @Cromwelp, Director of Publishing at Larian Studios (Baldur's Gate 3 developer). Addressing the point that Baldur's Gate 3 will be delayed on the Xbox Series X and S, he says that "the issue is getting split-screen working on the Series S" and that this is a "huge technical hurdle" for the studio.
Thomas Puha adds that he "feels Larian's pain on Series S" and explains that you can't "just optimize at the end" as a developer. The studio has to take into account the technical limitations from the beginning of the development, which Puha describes something "nobody really wants to think of" when they start making games.
Puha also answers multiple follow-up questions about the nature of these technical limitations. For example, @FishSt1ck wonders if dealing with technical limitations is already a given for games targeting PC platforms, but Puha says that "PC build just scales differently" and that "it just isnt that easy on X and S for a multitude of reasons.". One of those issues is keeping a game at a consistent 60 FPS, a point on which Puha argues that "unless someone in the team owns that from the start, keeps watch and makes sure everyone on the team pushes to that direction and considers it every day, it won’t happen."
The comments didn't sit well with some, who wondered how Puha could possibly know anything about game development. Some also tried to argue that developers in the past were even more limited than today's developers, yet "came up with the craziest and most successful ideas. But Puha replied that this only happened when developers "had one platform and the limitations were very clear to everyone making games." That's not the case for a lot of games and game developers these days.
For those worried about the state of Remedy's upcoming Alan Wake 2 and whether it will face similar technical difficulties, Puha reassures fans that the team is committed to developing "a true next-gen experience" and he believes that what the team showed in March "held up that promise pretty well". This was stated in response to what if Alan Wake 2 could have been more ambitious if not for the series S, so it seems that Remedy isn't compromising anything for Alan Wake 2 at least, but we can only confirm the truth of that next October.