New Xbox Series S Developer Tools Grant Games More Memory

Thanks to a new software development kit, Xbox Series S developers will now be able to create games that use more memory than ever before. The recent upgrade was implemented with the intention of giving developers more control over performance on the next-gen console.

As The Verge reported, this update is specifically for optimizing the Series S, which has lower memory and graphical power than the more expensive Series X. While the Series X has access to 16 GB of RAM, its smaller cousin has around 10 GB. Developers are further constrained to 8 GB, because around 2 GB of that total is used for the operating system. The recently released June Game Development Kit frees up hundreds of additional megabytes of memory. In a video explaining the update, this additional memory “can improve graphics performance in memory constrained conditions.”

As pointed out by the Verge, developers told YouTube hardware experts Digital Foundry that memory constraints were a particular problem in developing and optimizing for the Series S. The previously-mentioned video also states that many of the changes in the June Game Development Kit were the direct result of developer feedback.

This update comes alongside several changes to Xbox development tools and resources. The other significant change is improved performance for graphics allocation, allowing developers to use memory more efficiency without taking a graphics performance hit.