Starfield’s framerate will be locked at 30 frames per second (FPS) for players on both Xbox Series X and S.
In an interview with IGN, Bethesda head Todd Howard confirmed the news and gave reasoning behind the decision.
“I think it’ll come as no surprise, given our previous games, what we go for,” Howard told IGN. “Always these huge, open worlds, fully dynamic, hyper detail where anything can happen. And we do want to do that. It’s 4K in the X. It’s 1440 on the S. We do lock it at 30, because we want that fidelity, we want all that stuff. We don’t want to sacrifice any of it.
“Fortunately in this one, we’ve got it running great. It’s often running way above that. Sometimes it’s 60. But on the consoles, we do lock it because we prefer the consistency, where you’re not even thinking about it.”
He also added: “[W]e don’t ever want to sacrifice that experience that makes our games feel really, really special. So it feels great. We’re really happy with how it feels even in the heat of battle. And we need that headroom because in our games, really anything can happen.”
As far as framerate on PC, there was no specific mention of that in the interview. Nor was there a follow-up on 60 FPS coming via a post-launch update.
What do you make of Starfield’s framerate being locked to 30 FPS on Xbox?
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This is the most backwards move and backwards comment I have seen in a while. Locking at 30 fps degrades quality, it doesn’t ‘lock in’ quality. This is a major sacrifice, and something that users will think about all the time, if they end up playing on Xbox. The only games locked at 30 fps these days are garbage and they get trolled hard for it. Howard thinks everyone has a tv older than the mid cycle consoles. What a monumental let down.
the game is marketed as optimised for S/X without a performance mode alongside Quality mode this is basic false advertising from Bethesda. If they don’t patch it in then this is hands down the dumbest move. Redfall I can imagine was a nightmare cause it was dealing with Arkane Austin but this is a Bethsoft devved game. This is pathetic to the nth degree. Todd should rope