Starfield Devs Sacrificed Visuals and 60 Fps for More Player Freedom
We've known for more than a month that Starfield will be available at 30 fps on Xbox Series X/S. Bethesda preferred to forgo the higher frame rate to provide more gameplay.
It is already known that Starfield will be available on the latest Xbox consoles only in 30 fps. Although a sizable group of gamers did not like this decision, Todd Howard had already announced that Bethesda would prefer to sacrifice graphic quality and higher frame rates for "more gameplay freedom.".
"We want to give players as much freedom as possible," he said.
Last November, Todd Howard appeared on Lex Fridman's podcast, in which he talked about the development of Starfield and several other projects under development by Bethesda - including The Elder Scrolls 6.
- Friedman then asked Howard what the trade-off was between the quality of the graphics and the experience of the story in Starfield. Howard replied that Bethesda would prefer to give players more freedom during exploration, sacrificing 60 fps and some visual solutions for this purpose.
- Continuing with the answer Bethesda's boss pointed out that he doesn't mind 30 fps if it provides a very good experience.
- That's why, according to Howard, it's better to give up more frames per second and provide players with more opportunity in exploring the story. Especially with the size that Starfield boasts.
The statement from last year's interview is all the more striking because since June we are certain that Starfield's release on Microsoft consoles will suppoer only 30 fps. It can be thought that as early as November 2022, Bethesda was already trying to give up more frames per second on consoles.
Let's point out that according to the announcement, Starfield will be a huge game. In order to ensure solid graphics quality on every planet, the developers had to make some compromises (based on Howard's words) to provide players with better immersion.
You can listen to Todd Howard's statement around the 00:30:00 mark.
Cooperation with AMD and Starfield Direct
Some time ago Bethesda also announced an exclusive partnership with AMD, which, like the 30 fps limitation, did not please many gamers. The main complaint of the community is that the company block competitor solutions, such as DLSS from Nvidia.
Also behind us is Starfield Direct, where we received quite a lot of footage from this upcoming game. Later Bethesda also presented a limited Starfield-themed edition of Xbox controller and headphones. In addition, the watch that will be included in the collector's edition was shown.
Starfield will debut on September 6 and will come out exclusively to PC and Xbox Series X/S. Currently, the title can be pre-ordered.
