Battlefield 6 development on Xbox Series S made the "whole game better and more stable" — DICE focuses on optimization

Kotaku recently sat down with DICE, developers of Battlefield 6, for a discussion on the various console ports being released for the title. The technical director of Battlefield 6, Christian Buhl, said, “I will say that the biggest thing we did that was a challenge for us was memory. Xbox Series S does have less memory than even our mid-spec PC. And so there was a point, I want to say 6 to 12 months ago, where we kind of realized that a lot of our levels were crashing on Xbox Series S.”

After reviewing the code and optimizing specific aspects of Battlefield 6 and the Frostbite engine, Buhl stated that the process made the “whole game better and more stable,” which all players will get to experience.

In my own playtime, Battlefield 6 was one of the best running AAA titles I’ve seen in recent years. Having played on both Xbox and PC, I was surprised at how well BF6 ran, considering it was months away from release. I guess we get to thank the Xbox Series S?

Battlefield, at least as of late, has often been plagued by performance issues at release. Notably, both Battlefield 5 and Battlefield 2042 were under intense scrutiny for their relative playability. With Vince Zampella at the helm, it would seem DICE is sailing on much smoother seas.

Buhl would continue, “We were doing so much testing. We were collecting all this data. Once we kind of started running all our levels through it, and were able to see where the problems were, after a month or two, we had kind of resolved all of our memory issues on Series S.”

Xbox Series S development across the years

The development cycle for the Xbox Series S has been a hotly contested topic since its announcement. From developers across the globe, one way or another, someone always has something to say, whether positive or negative.

Baldur’s Gate 3 is most famously known for issues during development that caused a delay in its release. Splitscreen cooperative gameplay was causing issues for the game to the extent that Microsoft allowed them to drop the feature. This made Baldur’s Gate 3 the very first game that didn’t have feature parity between the Xbox Series X and the Xbox Series S. It would launch later, though!

Black Myth: Wukong, whether you believe their story or not, also came out saying they were unsure about a potential release for Xbox, as developing the game for the Series S could take “years”. Somehow, someway, they found a way to get the game ready to ship exactly one year after its release on PlayStation 5 and Windows PC. Definitely no exclusivity contract.

Across the aisle, other developers have praised the console's development.

IO Interactive stated they faced no significant issues when developing for the Series S. The Evil West producer also said that "the console did not limit them and that the Xbox Series S is an excellent market product.”

Even Rust console developers, Double Elven, highlighted the Series S as a "great entry point" for players. Whatever the case may be, it’s generally the negative news coming out about the Xbox Series S that’s most focused on.

What do you think? Are you and an Xbox Series S owner like me? Let us know if you've felt the console has been an overall benefit or hindrance to development in the comments below or on social media.