close
close

topicnews · August 26, 2024

Obsidian confirms: Avowed runs on Xbox Series X and S at 30 fps

Obsidian confirms: Avowed runs on Xbox Series X and S at 30 fps

Avowed will run on Xbox Series X and S at a “baseline” of 30 frames per second, developer Obsidian has confirmed.

Speaking on the Iron Lords Podcast, art director Matt Hansen said that Obsidian is “aiming for a base frame rate of 30 frames per second” for the first-person fantasy RPG, but 60 frames per second sounds unlikely, even on the more powerful Xbox Series X.

Hansen explained that Obsidian chose 30 fps to allow for nicer graphics, and that since Avowed is a single-player first-person game, “they don’t necessarily need the 60 frames.”

Since this is a single-player first-person game, the 60 frames are not strictly necessary.

“We’re aiming for at least 30 frames per second,” Hansen said. “That’s the expectation.”

“It’s a first-person single-player game, you don’t necessarily need those 60 frames. And that allows us to get a lot more exciting with VFX and lighting and all that other stuff.

“We made this compromise relatively early on and are really happy with it. The game runs pretty smoothly considering how straightforward it is, and that was always our goal.”

Obsidian, however, is still figuring out the finer points of performance: “It’s one of the last things you do,” Hansen said.

Set to launch in February 2025 for PC and Xbox Series X and S, Avowed joins a list of Xbox Series X and S games that have launched at 30fps in recent years. That list includes Bethesda’s Starfield (which now runs at 60fps after a post-launch update), Arkane Austin’s Redfall (which also now runs at 60fps after a post-launch update), and Ninja Theory’s Hellblade 2, which has yet to receive a 60fps update.

In fact, Obsidian’s reasoning for the 30 frames per second target echoes comments from Bethesda’s head of development Todd Howard, who explained why Starfield launched at 30 frames per second on both Xbox Series X and S last year.

“Given our previous games, I don’t think it’s going to be a surprise what we’re going for,” Howard said at the time. “Always these huge, open worlds, fully dynamic, hyper-detailed, where anything can happen. And that’s what we want. It’s 4K on the X. It’s 1440 on the S. We’re locking it down to 30 because we want that fidelity, we want all that stuff. We don’t want to sacrifice any of it.”

“Fortunately, it runs great here. It often runs way above that. Sometimes it’s 60. But on consoles, we lock it down because we prefer the consistency where you don’t even think about it.

“And we never want to sacrifice that experience that makes our games so special. So it feels great. We’re really happy with how it feels, even in the heat of battle. And we need that leeway because anything can happen in our games.”

As with recent Xbox games, Avowed could come with a 60fps performance mode after launch. There are also questions about whether Avowed will ultimately come to PlayStation 5, after Obsidian’s Pentiment and Grounded moved to the rival console this year and Microsoft has confirmed plans to release Id Software’s Doom: The Dark Ages and MachineGames’ Indiana Jones and the Great Circle on PS5 next year.

Avowed has been delayed until February “to give players some breathing room,” Microsoft said. It should be released later in 2024. IGN recently tried Avowed and we were impressed.

Wesley is IGN’s UK News Editor. You can find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can contact Wesley at [email protected] or confidentially at [email protected].

You may also like...