As of April 7, 2026, the developers of the upcoming tactical shooter Cinder City—a collaboration between NC and Big Fire Games—have formally adjusted the project's technical specifications on its Steam Store page. The original listing, which drew immediate backlash for mandating a 64GB RAM threshold, has been corrected.
The developer acknowledges the 64GB requirement was a specification error linked to an early development build.
Following the revision, the memory mandate has been lowered to 16GB, while the requested graphics processing unit (GPU) capacity has been increased to account for higher performance targets. This correction arrives after widespread player concern regarding the feasibility of such extreme hardware demands for a consumer-facing product.
Technical Adjustments
The volatility in the stated system requirements underscores the ambiguity surrounding current 'work-in-progress' software optimization.
| Specification | Initial Listing (Approx.) | Current Listing (Updated) |
|---|---|---|
| System Memory | 32GB - 64GB | 16GB (Recommended) |
| Graphics | Unspecified/Base | Higher Target Specified |
The adjustment serves as a primary case study in the tension between 'unoptimized' development builds and public transparency.
While the memory requirement has dropped, the concurrent increase in GPU requirements suggests that the developers are re-balancing the 'bottleneck' elsewhere in the system.
No release date has been confirmed, leaving the stability of these current specs open to further iteration.
Background and Context
The incident triggered a broader debate regarding the current trajectory of PC hardware requirements. The initial claim of 64GB—a standard capacity typically reserved for professional workstation use—clashed with the current market realities where 16GB remains the gaming industry's baseline.
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Cinder City is positioned as a large-scale open-world MMO tactical shooter. The development team, headed by NC, has previously stated that the game’s core loops rely on complex, persistent PvE environments. Given that these technical specs are labeled as reflecting a 'development build,' the final consumer experience remains subject to change. The incident highlights the precarious state of digital distribution where speculative hardware requirements are often displayed long before a game reaches a stable state of technical maturity.
