One of the many announcements that came out of PlayStation's State of Play event earlier this week was the reveal that No Rest for the Wicked, the action RPG from Ori developer Moon Studios, would launch out of early access this coming October 2026 and launch on PS5, but not Xbox Series X/S or Nintendo Switch 2. It's not uncommon to see Switch/Switch 2 versions of games arrive later, but what's the holdup for Xbox? Well, according to Moon Studios boss and creative director Thomas Mahler, the responsible party is the Xbox Series S.
As spotted by VGC after the State of Play reveal, in the No Rest for the Wicked Discord server, when players began asking why the game would be skipping Xbox Series X/S and Nintendo Switch 2 at launch, Mahler replied, "Series S is making that rough. We'll ship it after in a good way once it's optimized like crazy for Switch 2 and Xbox."
Another user then chimed in to say, seemingly as a joke, that the game will be close to a mobile launch after those optimizations for Switch 2 and Series S. Mahler replied, "Series S and mobile specs aren't too far apart at this point."
After the Xbox Series X/S were revealed, and it became publicly clear that every game coming to Xbox had to be capable of running smoothly on both machines, concerns for this dual-SKU approach skyrocketed. While there are countless games that run on the Series S without issue and many who argued in defence of the Series S, it's become clear that those concerns were not unfounded.
Baldur's Gate 3 was a major tipping point, finally coming to Xbox without split-screen on Series S months after it was available everywhere else, breaking former Xbox boss Phil Spencer's desire for absolute feature parity for games on both consoles. Dune: Awakening studio Funcom and Black Myth: Wukong developer Game Science are two other major cases of developers calling out the Series S's lackluster hardware, though in both cases the teams eventually figured things out, as Wukong arrived on Xbox a year after its initial release and Dune: Awakening is due out on Xbox and PS5 consoles this September.
But No Rest for the Wicked isn't the only upcoming title having issues with delivering a solid experience on the Series S. Saber Interactive was very direct at Gamescom 2025 when it said that the Series S simply cannot run Turok: Origins at 60 FPS. Sure, it'll run at 30 FPS instead, and part of the price you pay for the less-expensive Series S is understanding you'll have a worse graphical experience, but it wouldn't be surprising to see the Series S holdup Turok: Origins as well at this point.
Another layer to this, not necessarily related to the Series S, is the fact that just last year, Mahler admitted that an Xbox release was already on shakey grounds. "Given current market conditions, we might only release on PlayStation 5 and potentially Nintendo Switch 2 for the time being," Mahler said in July 2025. "We'll have to discuss things with Microsoft to see what makes sense for Xbox."
The Series S was initially pitched as a cheaper path towards keeping up with current-gen gaming, and in the eyes of Microsoft, a means of selling more consoles to a broader audience of players. Well, six years into the generation, Xbox is consistently selling fewer and fewer consoles and raising the price on those devices due to external issues like tariffs and memory shortages.
The Switch 2 gets a pass because it's a hybrid between a home console and a portable handheld device. It's got less room to work with by design, and after a generation of Nintendo Switch versions of games coming later than their PC, PS5, and Xbox counterparts, players are used to it. Xbox home consoles, however, don't get that same pass, and it's troublesome to say the least to still hear developers call out the Series S's shortcomings this late into the generation.
About the author: David has been writing about videogames, technology, and culture since 2020, with a focus on reporting daily news across multiple publications, including GameDaily.Biz, GameSkinny, and PlayStation Universe before joining Wccftech in 2025. David started contributing as Canada/US reporter for Wccftech's gaming section in 2025. Besides being up-to-date on the industry's movements, he loves interviewing developers, reviewing games, and writing intricate essays about the symbolism and layered meanings to be found in rich narratives as he's done for publications like GamesIndustry.Biz, LostInCult, and others. Outside of games he loves movies, music, theatre, his hometown, and his family, though not necessarily in that order.
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