Xbox Series S Limitations Helped Make Battlefield 6 a More Stable Game
While the Xbox Series S has often been criticized for its technical limitations, one of its biggest challenges actually helped make Battlefield 6 a more stable and optimized experience across all platforms.
In an interview with Kotaku, Battlefield 6 Technical Director Christian Buhl explained that the console’s limited memory - less than what the studio’s mid-spec PCs offered - caused frequent crashes during development. This forced the team to deeply optimize memory usage throughout the game.
“The biggest challenge was dealing with the console’s limited memory, which was less than that of our mid-spec PCs, and that caused crashing issues in a lot of the levels,” Buhl said.
The optimizations not only solved the Series S crashing problems within one to two months, but also carried over to the PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, and PC versions, resulting in a better and more stable game overall.
While DICE managed to turn the Series S’s hardware bottlenecks into an opportunity for refinement, many studios have struggled with the system’s constraints:
Saber Interactive couldn’t get Turok: Origins to run at 60 FPS on the console.
Black Myth: Wukong and Baldur’s Gate 3 both faced long delays on Xbox due to memory issues.
In fact, Microsoft had to relax its parity clause to allow Baldur’s Gate 3 to launch without split-screen co-op on the Series S, which was later added via a patch.
Despite the struggles, Buhl’s comments highlight how limitations can sometimes lead to unexpected gains. By forcing developers to find efficient solutions, the Series S indirectly helped ensure that Battlefield 6 would ship as one of the most stable entries in the series, even on more powerful platforms.
Do you think the Xbox Series S is holding back developers, or is it pushing them to make more optimized and efficient games?
