Ex-Tekken Boss Katsuhiro Harada blasts Xbox Series S for ‘awkwardly lower’ performance

Harada criticized the Xbox Series S for being challenging to work with, saying he wished ‘hardware like the Xbox Series S wouldn’t be released.’

At a recent conference, VS Studio CEO and former Tekken boss Katsuhiro Harada decided to put the Xbox Series S on blast, claiming that developing for Xbox’s weaker console was difficult and made him “wish hardware like the Xbox Series S wouldn’t be released.”

Harada put out these critiques of the Xbox Series S and more during the 2026 Console Game Developers Conference in Seoul, as reported by Inven Global. When asked about the “clear advantages” or “practical challenges” of console platforms compared to PC, Harada put his attention on the Xbox Series S as a sore spot. In fact, he made the critique in light of a senior Xbox official being on hand.

“I wish hardware like the 'Xbox Series S' wouldn't be released (laughs),” Harada said. “I want to ask Director Paweł personally—honestly, weren't you upset inside because of Series S?”

Director Pawel refers to CD Projekt Red’s Pawel Sasko, who was also in attendance and confirmed a little bit of the trouble with Series S, saying “it constantly throws challenges at us and forces us to optimize our code very cleanly.”

“You just used a very polite and elegant way to say ‘Xbox Series S sucks,’ right?” Harada followed. “Low memory is an issue, but the hardest part is that it's a device so similar to Series X while having awkwardly lower performance. When porting to Switch 2, developers can shift their mindset to ‘Switch 2 is a distinct device for Nintendo fans!’ But with Xbox, after delivering your absolute best output, it feels like having to do extra work for a slightly weaker child.”

Harada went on to share frustrations that there are more Series S owners than Series X owners in markets like the US, meaning to reach the biggest audience, developers had to port to the “awkwardly lower” performance of the Series S.

Sasko would go on to praise the Xbox Series S for getting devs to optimize for lower-level hardware, but Harada jokingly shared concern that praise of the Series S could lead to a “Helix S” for the next Xbox generation.

Stay tuned to the topic on Katsuhiro Harada for more news and updates, including the latest on what’s going on with his new VS Studio.

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