Alan Wake II developer Remedy had an “issue” with Xbox Series S

The developer of the upcoming survival horror sequel Alan Wake II has confirmed that getting the game to run properly on the inferior hardware of the Xbox Series S was an “issue.”

In an interview with IGN, Communications Director for Remedy Entertainment Thomas Puha was asked if the cheaper console is a net positive. In response, he was keen to give credit to the console’s CPU, saying it was nearly as powerful as its Series X counterpart. Despite that, the GPU and memory available caused significant issues in getting the game to run at a consistent 30fps.

Puha confirmed that “the GPU is an issue, it really is. Then having less memory is also a pretty big problem… if the Xbox Series S is 250 bucks and the Series X or PS5 are $500, then obviously there is a massive difference in the power you are getting.”

Alan Wake isn’t the only game to struggle with the Series S specs

Remedy Entertainment

The release of Forza Motorsport also highlighted areas where the Series S may struggle to keep up. Though it hits a fairly consistent 60FPS on performance mode, users of the console were disappointed at the graphical fidelity.

One player commented on the effect the lower quality visuals has on the game’s customization system, saying: “The resolution of the decals on series S is appallingly bad. C’mon, this game is cross-platform, and if you’re a “painter”, at least let us see how the designs will look on an X or PC gamer’s machine, so that we can paint our liveries and be confident they’ll get downloads.”

As games continue to advance their visuals all the time, the Series S could continue to struggle. If this does happen, users of the console will feel aggrieved at the diminished performance of the newest releases.