What you need to know
- Starfield, Bethesda's upcoming sci-fi RPG epic, will be locked to 30 FPS on Xbox Series X|S. Todd Howard confirmed this in a newly published interview.
- Howard says that Bethesda ultimately chose to give the game a 30 FPS cap on console so that the studio wouldn't have to sacrifice any part of the game's visual quality.
- Additionally, Howard also mentioned that the 30 FPS lock gives Bethesda "headroom" in case something intensive happens in-game that would cause inconsistent framerates with a higher cap.
- Starfield is slated to launch on September 6, 2023 on Xbox, PC, and Game Pass.
- Update: Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer has weighed in, stating that the game's 30 FPS cap was "a creative choice."
Update 6/12/23 at 2:15 a.m. PT / 5:15 a.m. ET: Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer has commented on Starfield's 30 FPS lock while speaking on the Giant Bomb at Nite show, stating that it was ultimately "a creative choice" and that it's "not a platform issue."
“It’s a creative choice. We obviously have games that are running at 4K/60 on the platform," Spencer said. "It’s not a platform issue, it’s a creative decision.”
Our original story is below.
Following the conclusion of the Starfield Direct and Microsoft's 2023 Xbox Games Showcase, a newly published interview with Bethesda's Game Director and Executive Producer Todd Howard has confirmed that Starfield will be locked to 30 FPS on both the Xbox Series X and the Xbox Series S.
This news will undoubtedly upset fans hoping for a smoother framerate, but Howard says that Bethesda didn't want to "sacrifice" any of the game's visual quality.
"I think it'll come as no surprise, given our previous games, what we go for. Always these huge, open worlds, fully dynamic, hyper detail where anything can happen," Howard said in the interview. "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," he continued, referring to the game's performance on PC. "But on the consoles, we do lock it because we prefer the consistency, where you're not even thinking about it."
Howard went on to say that despite the 30 FPS lock, his studio feels confident in how good the game feels to play. He also says that Bethesda needs the "headroom" provided by 30 FPS so that they don't need to worry about intense gameplay moments causing inconsistent framerates.
"And we 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.”
Windows Central's Zachary Boddy wrote an article responding to the resulting controversy on why Starfield was never going to run at 60FPS on Xbox consoles, and for very good reason. If you want to learn more about this subject, give it a read.
In other news, we learned a ton about the game during the Starfield Direct, and got almost a full hour of new in-engine and gameplay footage. During the show, Howard and several other Bethesda developers gave fans a deep look at Starfield's character creation options, role-playing elements, exploration systems, weapon and ship customization, and more.
Starfield looks like it's going to be one of the best Xbox games of all time, offering RPG fans an experience that they'll be playing for years to come. Starfield preorders are live and available for Xbox and PC, as are Starfield-themed Xbox controllers and headsets.
