Published on Aug 05, 2022
‘Xbox dev tools update gives developers more memory for Series S,’ according to the latest Tweet from Destructoid.
Microsoft’s latest Game Development Kit (GDK), an official API for developing games on Xbox consoles and Windows PCs, seemed set in stone when it was announced in June. The update has now gone live with a surprise bonus that hasn’t yet been described on the company’s Github repository two months later.
XboxERA reporter Jesse Norris first spotted the announcement in an official unlisted Microsoft video. Now that the June GDK is live two months after its named month, it includes an increased memory allocation for the $299 Xbox Series S.
According to our search of the publicly accessible GDK, this memory allocation boost does not appear to be linked to any specific patch notes or announcements. Microsoft representatives did not immediately provide the technical breakdown of this update.
While this RAM pool had been allocated elsewhere on Series S systems until today, update-perhaps taken up by OS-level processes (which previously sucked up roughly 2GB of Series S’ total 10GB pool) that the company has since been able to reduce.
According to Ars’ sources, cross-platform development between the $499 Xbox Series X (16GB total RAM) and the cheaper Series S (10GB total RAM) has proven more challenging than Microsoft initially predicted. Microsoft believes that games targeting 4K resolutions and incredibly high-resolution textures can downscale all surfaces for the sake of a 1080p TV screen and otherwise get away with an identical rendering load, primarily due to similar CPU and storage specs between consoles.
