Up to 30 percent smaller installs
There are a lot of component differences between the Xbox Series X and S that warrant the $200 price gap between the two (check out this handy cheat sheet if you’re still confused), However, one of the most obvious get-what-you-pay-for gulfs between the two is that the Series X comes with an NVMe SSD that’s twice as large as the one in the Series S. Even though it’s half the size, Xbox says developers will have options to stretch those 512GB further.
Speaking with IGN, Xbox director of program management Jason Ronald said that install sizes should be significantly smaller on Series S than on Series X. Like, approximately 30 percent smaller. That’s because developers won’t need to ship 4K texture packs for the Series S because it targets 1440p resolution. “Our expectation is that developers will not ship their highest level mipmaps to Xbox Series S, which will reduce the size of the games,” Ronald explained.
This seems like an intra-generation adaption of Smart Delivery. Whereas Smart Delivery detects whether you’re playing a game on Xbox One or Xbox Series S/X and automatically serves up an install that’s optimized for your console, this functionally does the same thing but within the same family of new consoles. It’s just a matter of Xbox knowing which assets to install. “The flexibility is in the developers’ hands to make sure the right assets are there,” Ronald said. As long as the developers are diligent, Series S installs won’t be quite as bloated as their Series X counterparts.
Xbox Series S Game Sizes Will Be Smaller Than on Series X [IGN]
