Analysts warn gamers that 60fps console games will increasingly become scarce over time, which poses serious risk for gamers’ wallets and gaming experience.
As technology develops, gamers have come to expect new game releases on new-gen consoles to look and perform better than ever. Thanks to powerful hardware allowing higher resolution graphics and smoother frame rates, it only makes sense that major titles would aim for ultimate performance?
Conspiracies arise whenever it is announced that an anticipated game won’t reach 60 frames per second on consoles; we witnessed this with Gotham Knights last year being an excellent example. Most recently, Bethesda announced Starfield will also remain locked at 30FPS on consoles; according to some tech analysts this could signal future troubles within gaming elitist circles.
Digital Foundry game tech analysts recently provided an in-depth breakdown video about Starfield’s frame rate. According to them, its lower frame rate makes sense in light of how this game requires players to remember what actions have occurred on its various worlds and remain steady across many locations simultaneously – although these analysts believe this trend might become standard across future games as well.
“For better or for worse – but likely for the latter – 30FPS seems set to become once again the default frame rate we see in big console games and, should performance modes be available, may not provide as stable performance modes,” Digital Foundry’s John Linneman noted. Although disappointing in certain ways, I feel this trend towards increasing graphics capabilities is inevitable and is simply natural due to cross-generation platform restrictions requiring developers to push frame rate as lower-end platforms still needed attention, while more recently we are witnessing games reaching beyond them all in terms of graphics capabilities than before.
Though this would certainly be regrettable, most would probably agree that having a game run smoothly at lower frame rate rather than constantly struggling for one would likely be preferable.
