The Xbox Series S is a cheaper current-gen alternative, but it has much lower specs. It targets 1080p and, occasionally, 1440p, compared to the Series X's 4k output. This means developers have to work around two different console requirements for the same brand, which according to Bossa Studios VFX artist Ian Maclure, has become something of a headache in the industry.In response to journalist and former GameSpot editorial director Jeff Gerstmann's tweet about the argument that the Series S is holding back current-gen games, Maclure said, "It might sound broken, but the reason you are hearing it a lot right now is because MANY developers have been sitting in meetings for the past year desperately trying to get Series S launch requirements dropped."Studios have been through one development cycle where Series S turned out to be an albatross around the neck of production, and now that games are firmly being developed with new consoles in mind, teams do not want to repeat the process."
Technical designer Luke Parkes-Haskell also disputed the argument that developers already have to work with several different PC builds in mind, all using a variety of different graphics cards from different manufacturers. "Not really a fair comparison," Parkes-Haskell tweeted. "The 1060 might be the most common, but it's still only 6.7% of users. Around 20% of users are on a 30 series - but the Steam hardware survey is of ALL people using Steam, the majority of whom are not playing modern games.
"A high volume of accounts only [play CS:GO], or DOTA 2 - for old games like that, you don't need anything better than a 1060, and with the Series S being what it is, a number of gamers won't bother upgrading a 1060 either due to there being no need for multiplatform games."