I’ve played the first few hours of Cyberpunk 2077 on the Xbox Series S, and so far it’s...fine! Night City, the sun-drenched and acid-bleached futuristic metropolis, looks gorgeously dystopian on my 4K TV. I’ve only noticed one performance dip, one animation bug, and one instance of missing textures. Of course, things could get much worse the longer I play; the game is buggy, after all. Still, I don’t feel the need to wait for next year’s next-gen optimization.
Surprised? I am. Although technically a next-gen console, the Xbox Series S is so relatively weak that it officially doesn’t offer any boost to Xbox One games besides speedy, SSD-powered load times. On Series X, you can play Cyberpunk 2077 at 60 frames per second. On Series S, you’re stuck with 30fps action and what looks like dynamic resolution. Of course, playing Cyberpunk 2077 on any console is a compromise compared to what’s possible on a gaming PC.
Still, I’m having a good time playing this version of Cyberpunk 2077. If you don’t have the latest hardware, you should still be able to play whatever games you can without an ounce of regret.
Buyer Beware?
Sometimes, you can’t play whatever games you want on the hardware you own. I found Cyberpunk’s positive performance on Series S particularly shocking after seeing reports of poor, last-generation performance. The video clips show a game far worse than what I’ve played; they show a game that’s absolutely broken. If you can’t enjoy the game you bought, you’re right to be mad. You’re also right to be mad if the game, without warning, triggers your epilepsy!
However, despite what some gamers insist, the solution shouldn’t be “buy better hardware.” CD Projekt Red instead needs to fix the versions that it's already selling on weaker hardware. The developer wasn’t wrong to release the game on last-gen systems. The millions and millions of people who only have those machines appreciate the chance to play one of the year’s most anticipated games, a game announced a year before the PS4 and Xbox One were available for purchase. Still, if CD Projekt Red takes your money, the developer owes you a working, well-optimized game.
Legacy Software
That said, even if Cyberpunk 2077 ran flawlessly on consoles (and hopefully patches will soon make that the case), you would still hear some purists claiming that playing on the most powerful PC possible is the only true way. Setting aside the fact that the PC version also has technical issues, you shouldn’t need to pay hundreds of dollars for a graphics card that’s currently impossible to find just to be a part of the conversation surrounding a single video game. Arguing otherwise furthers a harmful gatekeeping attitude that plagues gaming in ways larger than Cyberpunk 2077.
Do you want to know why I was prepared to accept technical shortcomings in Cyberpunk 2077’s console version? It’s because I’m already used to experiencing many of them in Nintendo Switch ports of AAA games. I’ve already explained it’s totally valid that I and others see the Switch’s portable functionality as a bigger selling point than increased power. Before playing Cyberpunk 2077, I sunk many hours into the newly updated Outer Worlds Switch port and the just-released Doom Eternal Switch port. I can put up with some blur to play a game in bed. Immortals Fenyx Rising is the latest Switch game that lets you move save data to PC, much like CD Projekt Red’s own Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Switch port, giving you the best of both worlds.
My Xbox Series S isn’t portable, but as a $299 console it is more convenient than my PC, which simply isn’t equipped to run Cyberpunk 2077. Playing on console is the way I’m going to keep enjoying the game, and you shouldn’t feel bad if you’re in the same boat.
Forwards and Backwards
Video game culture, and really technology culture in general, is obsessed with the newest thing, the latest upgrade. That’s not inherently a bad thing. I love getting excited about future possibilities. That said, we shouldn’t let that stop us from enjoying perfectly fine experiences in the present. We shouldn’t pressure people who can’t afford to upgrade, or simply have no interest in “premium” experiences they personally don’t value, with arbitrary FOMO pressure.
I still have an original iPhone SE. Is it old? Yes. Is it still an extremely powerful pocket-sized supercomputer that efficiently does everything I need it to do? Yes. And if I do upgrade, I’ll probably be just fine with an iPhone 12 mini. Death to planned obsolescence for perfectly capable machines, especially in the middle of a pandemic.
If anything, my favorite new console feature so far has nothing to do with how well they play new games; it’s how well they play and preserve old games. The robust backwards compatibility on Xbox lets last-gen games sing like never before, and boast a higher visual fidelity. I’m playing the original Xbox version of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic for the first time, and it looks pleasingly clean. The RetroArch turns the Series S into a strong emulation box that can run games as modern as Wii games. We can look to the bright future and improve the cherished past all at once. It’s not a straight line.
Jackin' In, However You Can
I’m not a huge fan of game streaming services like Amazon Luna and Google Stadia (services that also let you play Cyberpunk 2077). The input lag frustrates me, and they suck up a lot of internet data. However, I do like their core pitch of letting anyone play the latest games without pricey hardware. They even let you play AAA video games on a phone. That’s a noble goal.
When it comes to overcoming gaming’s barriers to entry, the next best thing is playing a demanding game like Cyberpunk 2077 on the cheapest, least cutting-edge consoles. This generation has normalized cross-gen releases more than ever. We may want to move on eventually, just so games can fully take advantage of next-gen power. For now, play whatever (working) game you want on whatever device you want, and don’t let anyone shame you for it. Squeezing the most life you can out of busted, ancient tech before you put it out to pasture is the most cyberpunk thing you can do.