The Xbox release of Wuthering Waves still suffers from issues that make it hard to recommend (for now)

Last July, Xbox users finally got their hands on one of the most viral games of the past couple of years. The celebrations were shortlived.

Wuthering Waves is a free-to-play gatcha RPG, similar to the likes of Genshin Impact. Wuthering Waves is available on every platform now, including Xbox, consoles, mobile, and PC, complete with a high-quality story and decent combat depth.

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The game is incredibly popular and has amassed a global audience across every platform, landing itself 30 million~ players across its versions. It won the Player's Choice award at last year's Game Awards, and continues to find growth owing to large free content updates.

Unfortunately, though, the Xbox version is broken.

Wuthering Waves (affectionally nicknamed WuWa by the community) recently got a sizeable content patch, adding new story beats and features to the game. The update has, however, once again put a spotlight on the Xbox version, which seems more broken than ever.

"The situation has worsened as I’ve progressed through the game. I’m currently in Lahai-Roi, and it’s been impossible to play for 40 minutes without the game closing unexpectedly," one user wrote on Reddit. "I play on Xbox Series X, but the same bug persists even on Xbox Cloud Gaming, where high local processing power isn't required. Other players have reported similar issues."

The most recent video showcases new visual glitches introduced in this week's patch, where textures get stretched infinitely across the playspace until the game crashes.

Users have been tracking Wuthering Waves' lack of quality on Xbox since the game launched, and had hoped it would be improved in subsequent updates. Sadly, things have gotten worse rather than better.

There are theories that Wuthering Waves on Xbox is a port of the iOS and Android version of the game, owing to a lack of shadows, foilage, and other post-processing improvements. The PlayStation 5 version is is far far better looking, far less crash-prone, and generally more performant than the Xbox Series X version. This absolutely shouldn't be the case in a game designed to run on low-end mobile phones.

We've reached out to Wuthering Waves' developer Kuro Games via their PR firm to get a comment, but I would be surprised if they offered one up.

If they thought the Xbox audience wasn't worth providing a high-quality port for, I'm confused as to why they bothered spending the money to deliver a port in the first place. Genshin Impact and other HoYoverse gatcha games like Zenless Zone Zero run incredibly well on Xbox. HoYoverse also did dedicated launches for Xbox, complete with bonuses and freebies for new players joining the ranks via Team Green.

Wuthering Waves' treatment of the Xbox audience by comparison has been a sad joke.

There's also some blame to be levied at Microsoft here I would argue. PlayStation demands that developers create visual parity with their multiplatform versions within reason. Xbox's certification processes are also notoriously strict compared to other platforms — what's the point of those apparent strict rules if they allow games like Wuthering Waves to launch in such a lamentable state? It makes Xbox look inferior for one thing, and treats Xbox customers like second class citizens in the other.

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Either way, it sucks for Wuthering Waves fans on Xbox that Kuro Games doesn't seem to consider them worthwhile. I would recommend players stick to HoYoverse options instead. Hopefully Honkai Star Rail makes its way across to Xbox in the future too. PerhaHoYoverse' next big games come to Xbox on day one as well, further reducing the need to consider Wuthering Waves as an option.

If Kuro replies, I'll be sure to update this piece, but I wouldn't hold my breath. They don't seem to care about the Xbox version even slightly.

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