Bethesda Game Studios director Todd Howard says Starfield, the anticipated upcoming sci-fi RPG, runs at 30FPS on Xbox Series X/S. The game recently received an in-depth gameplay dive at the Starfield Direct presentation which followed last night’s Xbox Games Showcase, lifting the curtain on its various gameplay mechanics, visual improvements, open-universe sandbox exploration and much more. Similar to Redfall, though, Starfield will not launch with a 60FPS option this September.
In an interview with IGN, Howard confirmed that Starfield would be locked at 30FPS at launch on both Xbox Series X and S. Howard stated that the game can run at 60FPS but it was locked to 30FPS for consistency. The PC version of Starfield will likely allow for an unlocked framerate but on Xbox consoles, players will have to settle with 30FPS until Bethesda releases an update later down the line that breaks the cap.
READ MORE – Xbox Games Showcase Round-Up – All Announcements and Trailers
In the interview, Howard explained:
“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. And we do want to do that. It’s 4K on the X. It’s 1440 on the S. We do lock it at 30fps, 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 60fps. But on the consoles, we do lock it because we prefer the consistency, where you’re not even thinking about it.”
“We’re really happy with how it feels even in the heat of battle,” Howard added. “And we need that headroom because in our games, really anything can happen.”
Starfield launches on 6 September 2023 for Xbox Series X/S and PC. It will also arrive day one on Xbox Game Pass. Catch up on all the announcements and trailers from the Xbox Games Showcase here.
