Technically speaking, Xbox Series S is an underpowered gaming hardware compared to the Xbox Series X. Over the years, a number of developers have expressed their concerns about developing on the console and reaching optimum levels of performance with their games. So, when a technically demanding game like GTA 6 is scheduled to be released on the console, it obviously raises questions whether it will be able to handle it.
However, Take-Two chairman and CEO Strauss Zelnick believes that Xbox Series S’ weaker hardware won’t be a problem for running Grand Theft Auto 6. In Take-Two’s recent earnings call, he stated that despite Rockstar’s experience of working with different kinds of hardware and the challenges they face, they will support them as long as players are on it.
“Look, we support the platforms where the consumers are for as long as they’re there, and we find a way to support platforms despite different levels of tech,” Zelnick stated.
Zelnick stressed that he is not at all worried about any potential performance issues on the Xbox Series S and as long as the end product is good, audiences will flock towards it. “Our labels are really good at that. I’m not really worried. I’ve never worried about where hardware was going. And I’ve said this many times over the years because, first of all, I don’t worry about things over which I have zero control. Secondly, I believe in the audience. The audience is going to show up if you have great properties, and so we just have to make sure to be on an array of platforms.”
As mentioned previously, the Xbox Series S is a challenging platform for various developers. The upcoming, highly anticipated open world shooter S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl currently runs at 35 frames per second on the console with room for improvement. It looks like the developer may achieve a higher frame rate but at the cost of visual fidelity and image quality. Alan Wake 2 developer Remedy found the console’s memory and GPU to be an “issue” and acknowledged that the best way to experience the game’s graphics is on a high-end hardware. The Xbox Series S version of Baldur’s Gate 3 was only able to run optimally on the console after the developer found a way to reduce usage of VRAM by 34%. All in all, it has not been a straightforward process for the developers to get their games working on Microsoft’s lesser console.
These statements by Zelnick should help to assuage any concerns that Xbox Series S players may have about GTA 6’s performance. Actual performance remains to be seen but given that Rockstar are masters of optimizing their games across console generations, the Xbox Series S version of Grand Theft Auto 6 will likely be problem free.
Grand Theft Auto 6 is set to release on the PS5, Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S in Fall of 2025. Whether it makes that release window is something that remains to be seen but according to Zelnick, the team is confident about achieving that goal.
For more on GTA 6, check out our video below where we discuss the game’s graphics and whether its realism may be an issue for its players.
