When PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X debuted in late 2020, many expected 60 frames per second games to become an industry standard. However, news of games like Starfield having a top at 30 frames per second made many wonder if that dream will prevail. Unfortunately, experts see it as very difficult.
Recently, Digital Foundry, a channel of experts in game performance analysis, released a podcast discussing Starfield and its frame rate on consoles. They pointed out that, in most cases, the framerate depends on the developer's creative vision. That is, they aim to achieve the highest possible frame rate within the project.
Therefore, considering that Starfield is a game that will let us travel through an entire universe and has object permanence, it's normal for it to only run at 30 frames per second. Especially since it presents a lot of interconnected systems that use console resources to create the immersive experience that Bethesda seeks to deliver with Starfield.
"[Bethesda games] are designed to store the position of any random object you can pick up in the world within the world. This is a huge task, right? But I think there are more things that go beyond object permanence. As their underlying systems are going to be complex," said John Linneman, producer of Digital Foundry.
Well, but could other future releases run at 60 frames per second, right? Of course, but as we already mentioned, it all depends on what the developer is aiming for. If we consider that many teams prefer to prioritize visual fidelity or other elements, it's very likely that 30 fps will be the standard for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X. In fact, Linneman expects that to happen.
"I hope that 30 frames per second is again the most common frame rate we see in big console games and if performance modes are offered, they may not be as stable as I would like," he explained.
What do you think of this news? Do you think frame rate should be given priority, even if other elements are sacrificed? Let us know in the comments.
Starfield will debut on September 6 on Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, and PC.
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