We actually started with zero contacts inside Microsoft. We started searching Google for an email for Phil Spencer, and we ended up finding it on some Reddit thread. It was an email that was essentially 'We are GSC Game World, we're interested in bringing Stalker to console players.' We got a near-instant response and a connection to the correct team. We've been working until now with the Xbox team, we love them, we think they are very effective and very empathetic."

"At first, we thought bringing Stalker 2 to the Xbox Series S might be impossible. We have such a big game with so many mechanics, a huge amount of things. It felt like this must be impossible to do. But then we start optimizing, adding new features for streaming information. Unreal Engine has a lot of features for this, but for our game, we really had to squeeze up every megabyte from every piece of system content we could, and now we did it.

After this experience, I believe it's possible for any game to reach the Xbox Series S' memory limits. And yes, not every developer, every studio has the opportunity, or the additional time to optimize for the Xbox Series S. We had to boost our expertise on the optimization side, which also helped the PC build, making it a lot more performant. We have quite low minimum PC requirements for a modern game."

"The game runs at 60 frames per second on Xbox Series X, there are some times when it might dip to 55 or so, but hopefully we can optimize further there before or after release. We allow bigger drops in narrative cutscenes that are full of complexity and VFX and the like, since it won't impact the player's movement experience.

On the Xbox Series S, we stick to 30 FPS. However, in many cases, we have managed to hit 60 FPS, but it's not as consistent as the Series X. But we're looking to get a performance mode for Xbox Series S, to get it to 60 FPS. We think it's possible."

A lot of interesting stuff here! In particular another case of Series S development optimization benefiting the overall game (we saw another notable example of being Baldur’s Gate 3) but continues to show that Series S is quite capable with the proper development time.

Also another interesting tidbit that it was GSC that sought out Xbox, not the other way around to just moneyhat the game. I knew there were rumors that Microsoft was the reason why Stalker 2 was coming to consoles in the first place as it was originally going to continue the franchise being a PC only franchise. Nice to have confirmation.

Pumped for the devs as this release is shaping up to be a great one! 

That wrap is nice and nice to see they still exist, should do one for Indiana Jones, but I won't get it, I would however 100% get a Fable wrap.

Stalker developers still have 200 people in Kyiv.