Conan Exiles Enhanced on PS5 & Xbox Series X (May 2026): Status, Timeline, Server Specs
Conan Exiles Enhanced launched on Steam on May 5, 2026, the franchise’s eighth anniversary. PC players got the full Unreal Engine 5 rebuild on day one. PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S players did not. They are still on the older Unreal Engine 4 build, with no confirmed console release date for Enhanced. This article is the running tracker for what we actually know about the console release, why it is taking longer than the PC version, what kind of performance to expect when it does land, and what console-only players should do in the meantime.
Quick status (mid-May 2026)
- PC (Steam, Enhanced): Live since May 5, 2026. UE5 rebuild, Lumen lighting, Nanite-style geometry, smoother performance on modern hardware.
- PlayStation 5 (Enhanced): Not announced. Console players remain on the UE4 build with the same content but the original visuals.
- Xbox Series X|S (Enhanced): Not announced. Same situation as PS5.
- PlayStation 4 and Xbox One: Will stay on UE4 indefinitely. Enhanced will not be ported to last-gen consoles.
- Crossplay status: No crossplay between PC Enhanced and console UE4. They are different builds running on different engines.
- Funcom statement: The studio has said it is “considering” bringing Enhanced to Epic Games Store, Microsoft Store, Xbox, and PlayStation later, with no committed timeline.
Why Enhanced is PC-only on launch
The short version: porting a UE4 game to UE5 is hard. Porting a UE4 game to UE5 and hitting console certification on day one is harder. Funcom shipped the PC version first because the PC market lets them ship and patch fast, while console certification on PlayStation and Xbox introduces multi-week submission cycles that do not survive a fast-iteration launch.
Specifically, the PC build can do things the console build cannot:
- Day-one hotfixes for crashes. Funcom shipped at least three hotfix patches in the first week. None of those could have hit console without re-submission.
- Driver-specific workarounds. Some early UE5 stability issues on PC were Nvidia driver bugs. Console hardware is fixed, but new bugs surface in environments that PC builds never see.
- Modding support. UE5 mod tools required new Steam Workshop infrastructure that has no console equivalent.
- Forward-compatible save format. PC Enhanced uses the same save SQLite file as UE4 (saves carry over), but the engine handles them differently at runtime. Console certification needs that nailed down before submission.
Funcom’s previous large console-update timelines (Age of Sorcery, Age of War) give a baseline. PC dropped first in each case, with console parity 8 to 14 weeks later. Enhanced is a bigger jump than those because of the engine swap, so expect the gap to stretch, not shrink.
What “Enhanced on PS5/XSX” will probably look like
This is speculative because Funcom has not committed to anything, but the engine and the hardware are known. We can reason about what’s likely.
Resolution and frame rate targets. The PS5 and Xbox Series X versions of Conan Exiles UE4 currently run at a checkerboarded 4K with frequent dips below 60 FPS in city zones. UE5 with Lumen will not match that on the same hardware. The realistic Enhanced console target is one of:
- Quality mode: 1440p dynamic, 30 FPS locked, full Lumen, full Nanite-equivalent geometry. The eye-candy mode.
- Performance mode: 1080p dynamic, 60 FPS targeted, software Lumen instead of hardware, reduced foliage density.
- Series S: 1080p, 30 FPS, software Lumen, reduced draw distance.
Most UE5 console games from 2024 to 2026 follow this exact pattern. There is no reason to expect Enhanced to be different.
RAM headroom. Conan UE5 on PC needs noticeably more RAM than UE4. Console memory is fixed (16 GB shared across PS5/XSX, 10 GB on Series S). Funcom will likely cap render distance and POI density to fit, which will be most visible in Sepermeru and other city areas.
Loading times. Should improve on Enhanced once Funcom ports it. PS5 SSD streaming pairs well with UE5 world partition. Expect 30 to 50% faster initial load and noticeably smoother fast-travel transitions.
The mod situation on console (the bad news)
Console players have never had Steam Workshop mods. Conan UE4 on PS5 and Xbox supports a small curated mod list distributed through the in-game Mod.io browser, with a much smaller catalogue than Steam Workshop.
Enhanced does not change this. Even after console Enhanced lands, the mod gap between PC and console will persist. Heavyweight mods (Age of Calamitous, Endgame Extended Weapon Arsenal, Hosav’s Custom UI) are PC-only. The Mod.io console list will get UE5 ports of its existing curated entries, eventually, but the catalogue will stay narrow.
For console-only players who want a richer mod experience, this is the same story it has been for years. Either play vanilla, accept the limited Mod.io catalogue, or eventually move to PC.
Crossplay: still no on Enhanced
Conan Exiles UE4 supports cross-platform play between PC, PlayStation, and Xbox through Funcom’s lobby system. Enhanced will not have crossplay with UE4 builds because the engines and packet formats are incompatible. This means a PC group on Enhanced and a console group on UE4 cannot play together until console catches up.
When console Enhanced launches, crossplay between Enhanced PC and Enhanced console should resume, but Funcom has not confirmed this explicitly. In the worst case, the studio could choose to keep PC and console separate even on the same engine, in which case crossplay would not return. Most likely it does, because Funcom has historically prioritised cross-platform play.
What console players should actually do right now
If you play Conan Exiles only on PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X|S and you have been hearing the Enhanced hype, your practical options:
- Stay on UE4. Nothing breaks. Your characters, your bases, your server world are all preserved. Funcom will continue patching the UE4 console build for at least the next year. The game is fully playable.
- Set up a PC playthrough alongside, if budget allows. Enhanced PC requires a mid-range GPU. A 4070-tier card hits 60 FPS at 1440p on high settings. Your console save does not transfer, so this is a fresh start.
- Wait for the console announcement. Funcom will signal a release window once they are confident in the port. Watch the official Conan Exiles X/Twitter and the in-game launcher. The community usually sees a 4 to 6 week lead time before a console release window confirmation.
- Self-host a UE4 server in the meantime. Dedicated server hosting is available for both UE4 and Enhanced. If you are building a community space, the UE4 server is the right choice for now because all your console players can connect.
For private-server admins running console-mixed communities
Many community servers have a mix of PC and console players. Until console Enhanced lands, you have a decision: stay on UE4 to keep everyone together, or split into two servers (a PC Enhanced one and a UE4 console one). Most communities have chosen to stay UE4 through May 2026 because splitting kills the community feel.
Some practical guidance for that decision:
- If 70%+ of your active players are on PC, run a parallel Enhanced server for them and keep the UE4 server going. Set a migration date when console catches up.
- If 70%+ of your active players are on console, stay on UE4 for now. There is no urgency to migrate.
- If your group is split roughly 50/50, the question becomes social. Survey your community. Most groups will defer to the console players because PC players can always run Enhanced as a side server.
- If you run a roleplay community, prioritise mod stability over visuals. The mods you depend on need their UE5 ports done. Wait until the modlist is solid before touching Enhanced.
Server RAM and CPU when console Enhanced lands
Console Enhanced will use the same dedicated server binary as PC Enhanced. There is no separate “console-build server.” This means your existing self-hosted Conan server, if running Enhanced already, can host both PC and console players once Funcom enables crossplay.
What changes is the player count headroom. Enhanced servers use more RAM than UE4 servers at the same player count. A 30-slot UE4 vanilla server runs comfortably on 8 GB. A 30-slot Enhanced vanilla server wants 12 GB. Heavy modded stacks (Age of Calamitous + Pippi + Hosav + a few smaller mods) push that to 18 GB or more. Plan your hosting plan with that headroom in mind.
| Server profile | UE4 RAM | Enhanced RAM | CPU bottleneck |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10-slot vanilla | 6 GB | 8 GB | Light |
| 30-slot vanilla | 8 GB | 12 GB | Moderate (single core) |
| 70-slot vanilla | 12 GB | 16 GB | High (single core) |
| 30-slot heavy modded | 12 GB | 18 GB | Mods drive load |
The single-core CPU bottleneck is unchanged from UE4. Conan does not multi-thread its main simulation well, so picking a host with high single-thread Geekbench scores matters more than picking one with more cores.
The 2026 timeline that’s most likely
None of this is committed by Funcom, but reading the studio’s history and the pace of UE5 console ports in general, our best guess is:
- May 5, 2026: PC Enhanced live (done).
- May to July 2026: Patch cycle, mod ecosystem catch-up, save-format and stability lockdown.
- Late Q3 2026: Console certification submission window opens. Funcom likely announces a console release window 4 to 6 weeks before drop.
- Q4 2026: Most likely console Enhanced release. Coincides with the typical autumn patch cycle and pre-holiday traffic push.
- 2027: Crossplay between PC and console Enhanced re-enabled. UE4 console legacy build wound down.
This is reasonable speculation, not a Funcom roadmap. Track the official channels for the real dates.