No Rest for the Wicked Developer Blames Series S for Xbox Release Delay
The Xbox Series S is facing another round of scrutiny after comments from Thomas Mahler, founder and game director of Moon Studio, the team behind the action RPG No Rest for the Wicked. The game has been in Steam Early Access since 2024 and is set to launch on PS5 this October with its 1.0 version. However, Xbox users will have to wait, and the delay isn't due to a marketing deal with Sony — it's because of the Series S's hardware limitations.
Mahler addressed a fan’s inquiry about the Xbox release date on Discord, saying: “Series S is making that rough.” He added that the game will eventually launch on Xbox once it’s “optimized like crazy for Switch 2 and Xbox.” When a user joked about a mobile version following the Xbox and Switch 2 releases, Mahler quipped that Series S and mobile specs aren’t too far apart at this point.
Other Games Affected by Series S
This isn’t the first time Xbox Series S has been linked to delays. Black Myth: Wukong, for instance, faced a one-year delay on Xbox, with rumors suggesting it was due to the Series S's hardware. While Microsoft initially denied these claims, Game Science later admitted that the 10 GBs of shared memory on the Series S caused optimization challenges. The studio confirmed that the delay was due to the extra time spent optimizing the game for the Xbox.
Another example is Baldur’s Gate 3, which had a staggered release across platforms. It launched on PC in August 2023, PS5 in September, and Xbox in December. This wasn’t a choice — Larian Studios had trouble getting split-screen co-op to work smoothly on the Xbox Series S. The studio even brought in Microsoft engineers to help resolve the issue.
The Future of Xbox Consoles
The ongoing discussion about the Xbox Series S has raised questions about its place in the console market. Microsoft requires all Xbox Series X games to work on the Series S with full feature parity, which has led to Xbox releases being delayed. This has sparked speculation about whether the next Xbox console, Project Helix, will have a cheaper, weaker variant — or if Microsoft will stick to a single SKU.
For now, No Rest for the Wicked will release on PS5 in an unspecified date in October. The Xbox release date remains to be confirmed.
