Avowed Runs at 30FPS on Xbox Series X

The art director claims this allowed the team to "get a lot juicier with the effects."

By Marc Deschamps

When Avowed launches next year, the game will run at 30fps on Xbox Series X. That information has been officially revealed by developer Obsidian Entertainment. In an episode of the Iron Lords podcast, art director Matt Hansen talked about the 30fps target, sharing his belief that single-player games don't need to run at 60fps. While this is sure to disappoint fans that put a lot of stock into a game's performance, Hansen notes that keeping the game at a target of 30fps has allowed Obsidian to focus more on other aspects. 

"Our core targeting [is] 30 frames per second bare minimum. That's the expectation. You know, it's a first-person, single-player game, you don't necessarily need that 60 frames, and that allows us to get a lot juicier with the effects and lighting and all this other stuff. It's a trade-off we opted to make relatively early and we're really happy with that. I mean... the game's running pretty smooth for how visually dense it is. And that was always our goal," said Hansen. 

We'll have a better idea of the game's performance as Avowed's February 18th release date draws closer. Some members of the press got a chance to go hands-on with Avowed at Gamescom this week, though Xbox did not make the title available to the general public. Hopefully there will be more opportunities in the run-up to the game's release, so fans can learn more about it, and see if the performance is something that will be a sticking point. 

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Obsidian has become one of Xbox's most reliable studios over the years, developing well-regarded games such as Grounded and Pentiment. Interestingly enough, both of those games ended up on other consoles this year, including PlayStation and Nintendo Switch. Xbox has been making a bigger deal of bringing its games to other platforms this year, and this week saw the announcement that Bethesda's Indiana Jones and the Great Circle will be coming to PS5 next year. It's possible we could see the same for Avowed at some point down the line, but nothing has been announced at this time. 

How do you feel about Avowed running at 30fps? Does that make any difference to you? Share your thoughts with me directly on Twitter at @Marcdachamp, on Bluesky at @Marcdachamp, or on Instagram at @Dachampgaming!

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