As IGN revealed exclusively at Summer of Gaming, the highly anticipated space epic Starfield will run at 30 frames per second on Xbox Series X and S. The news sparked a heated debate about the performance of Bethesda Game Studios’ next big title, challenging expectations. Some argue that major first-party games should run at 60fps on Xbox Series X no matter what.
But why does Starfield run at 30fps? He said that he decided to fix the to 30fps.
“I think it’s not surprising given the games we’ve played so far and what we’re trying to do,” Howard said. “It’s always been a huge, open world, completely dynamic, highly detailed world where anything can happen. And we want to do that. 4K on the X, 1440 on the S. We want it and we want it all, so we lock it at 30. We don’t want to sacrifice any of it.
“Fortunately it worked out this time. I often run well above that. Sometimes it goes to 60. But the console gives us consistency that we don’t have to think about it. It is locked because it takes precedence.
“We never want to sacrifice the experience that makes the game feel really special. We need the leeway because it is possible.”
can anything happen? How about hoarding a basketful of sandwiches on a spaceship? Yep, that’s exactly what we’ve seen possible with Starfield’s extended video preview, where players can collect all sorts of nonsense, pile it high in their homes, and count down the seconds until they crash BGS Continuing the rich tradition of gaming.
Now that the dust is starting to settle on Starfield’s 30fps debate, these sandwiches are an unlikely focus, and some experts believe that precisely this kind of gameplay is what makes 30fps the right choice. claims to mean
John Linneman, Video Game Analysis Specialist digital foundrytook to Twitter to explain exactly what’s going on.
“Though used as a gag in the video, this sandwich pirate concept highlights one of the reasons why 60fps is so hard to achieve,” Rinnemann explained.
“Like previous BGS titles, Starfield seems to track the location and position of any item in the world. Due to the high , it will probably be impossible to keep the frame budget under 16ms, which becomes impossible when the resolution is reduced.”
…and this stuff adds up. The player has so much latitude in this regard that it will probably be impossible for him to keep his frame budget below 16 ms. Reducing the resolution makes this impossible.
— John Linnemann (@dark1x) June 12, 2023
Some have requested that BGS add a performance mode to Starfield that allows players to reduce resolution and visual fidelity in favor of higher fps. But Linnemann says it won’t make much of a difference.
Starfield, like previous BGS games, is unique in many ways, including the way objects are tracked. “You can randomly pick items from your inventory and put them on the table,” Linnemann says. “You can set dozens of items or more. Item positions are preserved for the rest of the game. I can’t think of many other games that attempt this.”
Meanwhile, Danny Carlone, senior staff environment artist at God of War developer Sony Santa Monica, also echoed in defending BGS’ decision to go with 30fps on Starfield.
“This is not an indication that the game is incomplete,” he said in a tweet. “It’s a choice. At this scale he hits 60fps and the visual fidelity drops a lot. My guess is they want to go for a seamless look and less ‘pop-in’ I think. And, of course, you have the right to dislike that choice. ”
Game developers are here, big fans by the way. Just to be clear, this is not a sign of an unfinished game. it’s a choice. When he hits 60fps on this scale, the visual fidelity drops significantly. My guess is they want to go for a seamless look and less “pop in”.And of course you have the right to dislike that choice
— Danny Carlone (@Corgiboltz) June 12, 2023
Then he said, “It doesn’t have to be 4K (which is expensive) it could be 1080p at 60 or another variable resolution at 60. They want to stick with 30 4K and push the visuals to a higher level at this scale. We are here.”
Discussions about 30fps are likely to continue until Starfield’s release. Either way, assuming Starfield releases on consoles with locked 30fps performance, it will be the smoothest, most stable game Bethesda Game Studios has ever launched.
In case you missed it, here’s a recap of the Xbox Showcase. We will also post here everything that was shown during the Starfield Direct.
Wesley is IGN’s UK news editor. Find @wyp100 on Twitter. You can reach Wesley at: wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially wyp100@proton.me.
