Katsuhiro Harada says he wishes Xbox Series S didn’t exist, because it’s like doing ‘extra work for a slightly weaker child’

Former Tekken boss Katsuhiro Harada has criticised Xbox Series S at a recent panel, saying he wished it didn’t exist.

Harada was part of the closing session at the Console Game Developers Conference in Seoul, South Korea this week alongside former Sony boss Shuhei Yoshida, CD Project Red associate game director Paweł Sasko, Shift Up CTO DongKi Lee  and others.

As reported by Inven Global, at one point the discussion moved to the advantages of working on console versus PC, and the challenges faced.

Harada replied that fighting games have an overwhelming advantage over PCs when it comes to fighting games because it’s a lot easier to host 100-500 consoles at a fighting game tournament than it is to set up 100-500 PCs with identical specs.

Acknowledging that a member of Xbox was in the audience, however, Harada then brough up Xbox Series S and joked that he wished it didn’t exist.

“There’s something I really want to say while I have the floor,” he said (as translated by Inven Global). “Since a senior Xbox official is actually in attendance here today, I wish hardware like the ‘Xbox Series S’ wouldn’t be released,” he laughed.

Harada then turned to Sasko and asked him whether he was “upset inside because of Series S”, to which the Cyberpunk 2 associate game director reportedly burst out laughing.

“It constantly throws challenges at us and forces us to optimize our code very cleanly,” Sasko replied.

“You just used a very polite and elegant way to say ‘Xbox Series S sucks’, right?” Harada laughed. “Low memory is an issue, but the hardest part is that it’s a device so similar to Series X while having awkwardly lower performance.

“When porting to Switch 2, developers can shift their mindset to ‘Switch 2 is a distinct device for Nintendo fans’. But with Xbox, after delivering your absolute best output, it feels like having to do extra work for a slightly weaker child.

“Furthermore, in markets like the US, there are more Series S users than Series X users, so we can’t just cut corners. Yet after launch, Series S users direct their complaints at us developers rather than Microsoft, asking ‘why is texture resolution lower only on Series S?'”

Optimising for Series S makes games run better on all platforms, Cyberpunk 2 director says

Sasko added that he agreed with Harada’s take, but added that being forced to optimise for systems like Xbox Series S can be beneficial for performance on higher spec systems.

“Harada speaks a lot of truth,” he explained. “Players don’t fully understand the technical context behind why fewer characters appear on screen or why visuals are downgraded.

“However, intensely optimizing for lower-spec platforms definitely brings the benefit of making the game run significantly better across all platforms, including PS5, high-end PCs, and handhelds like Steam Deck and ROG Ally.

“Recently, with Cyberpunk 2077 Version 2.5, we applied optimization breakthroughs gained while preparing the Switch 2 launch title (which involved a team of 80 to 100 people for over a year) back to all other platforms with great effect.

“And the biggest advantage of Series S is that its affordable price makes it accessible. Not every gamer can buy expensive high-end hardware, so from a developer’s perspective, even if the strict constraints are painful, there is a silver lining in expanding market penetration to deliver the game to more players.”

Harada joked that the Xbox member in the audience appeared to like what Sasko was saying, and that he was concerned he would come to the conclusion that the Series S was being praised.

“Director Paweł packaged Series S so gracefully that the Microsoft representative in the audience keeps nodding along,” he said. “I’m worried they’ll feel reassured and release a successor like ‘Helix S’ for the next-gen Xbox as well.”