diff --git a/OpenRA.Game/StreamExts.cs b/OpenRA.Game/StreamExts.cs
index 68301fb65c..770d4c4a43 100644
--- a/OpenRA.Game/StreamExts.cs
+++ b/OpenRA.Game/StreamExts.cs
@@ -149,7 +149,7 @@ namespace OpenRA
 
 		public static string ReadASCII(this Stream s, int length)
 		{
-			Span<byte> buffer = length < 128 ? stackalloc byte[length] : new byte[length];
+			var buffer = length < 128 ? stackalloc byte[length] : new byte[length];
 			s.ReadBytes(buffer);
 			return Encoding.ASCII.GetString(buffer);
 		}
@@ -263,7 +263,7 @@ namespace OpenRA
 			if (length > maxLength)
 				throw new InvalidOperationException($"The length of the string ({length}) is longer than the maximum allowed ({maxLength}).");
 
-			Span<byte> buffer = length < 128 ? stackalloc byte[length] : new byte[length];
+			var buffer = length < 128 ? stackalloc byte[length] : new byte[length];
 			s.ReadBytes(buffer);
 			return encoding.GetString(buffer);
 		}