Todd Howard claims that for Starfield to run at 60fps, too much would need to be sacrificed in terms of performance.
Starfield’s release date draws ever nearer and although its promises of exploring over 1,000 planets across space are certainly exciting, some gamers remain concerned over its frame rate on consoles.
Starfield will remain at 30fps on Xbox Series X and S, without an option for performance mode that would sacrifice resolution in favor of smoother frame rates. Director Todd Howard discussed Bethesda never considering any sacrifice to increase frame rates by participating on Kinda Funny Games’ Xcast podcast.
“Our focus has never been to strip features away,” Howard stated. “Ultimately, what it comes down to is consistency – [the game is running great], yet no player should even notice. While other games might offer performance modes as options for optimization purposes, our preference lies with overall consistency; and this feedback from fans helps inform this decision.”
He elaborated: “So far we’re feeling fantastic; [the] game feels fantastic in your hands and developers understand this fact very well – there are things they can do to enhance its look and feel such as motion blur or how fast a game refreshes or reacts to controller input – all these details contribute towards something feeling amazing – I can honestly say this game feels better than any I’ve had!”
Well that sounds very promising indeed; surely all can agree that games with slower, steadyer frames look far superior than ones which aim for 60fps but continuously drop frames depending on where or what we do? I can’t wait for another chance to explore space!
