GSC Game World’s game is still not running perfectly on one platform, but the Ukrainian developers are grateful for Microsoft’s help.

At Gamescom, WCCFTech interviewed two members of GSC Game World, Slava Lukyanenka (the executive producer) and Zakhar Bocharov (their PR specialist) to find out what the developers still have to do before the release, and it turns out that the game needs to be optimized for Xbox Series S because it doesn’t run very well on that platform, and Microsoft is trying to give the team all the help they can:

“Well, our team is mature enough to handle many aspects of the game themselves. However, the Xbox team knows best how the Xbox works and what’s better to do in a case where we need to go deeper into optimization. The Microsoft team has visited several times and provided us with essential expertise on what else we could do that we hadn’t thought of. It’s not over yet. Aside from Xbox Series X, we’re still working on Xbox Series S optimization, and it’s going well, and the Xbox team is contributing a lot.

On Xbox Series X, we have two modes available. One is Performance Mode, where S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 runs at 60 fps with a slightly different look than in Quality Mode, which looks super awesome with all the reflections and high-res textures, but runs at 30 fps. We are trying to get a similar experience on the Xbox Series S by combining these two approaches. So far we have it at about 25 FPS on the Xbox Series S, but we still have room to tweak it,” Lukyanenka said.

Bocharov went on to explain how the Game Pass connection will work, as the game set in the Zone will of course be available through the subscription service: “Microsoft is not pushing us in any way to release on a certain date or just take the content out of the game or anything like that. In fact, Microsoft has been super supportive of us. We didn’t exactly ask anybody at Microsoft to be our friend, but Sarah Bond is obviously a friend of the game. Phil (Spencer) has been super supportive, all the teams at Microsoft have been super supportive. They didn’t put any extra pressure on us.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Shadow of Chornobyl will be released on November 20th for Xbox Series and PC, and will be available on Xbox Game Pass on day one (presumably for Ultimate subscribers). From the Epic vs. Apple lawsuit, we’ve learned that the Ukrainian studio’s game will likely be Xbox exclusive for three months.

Source: WCCFTech