30 vs 60 FPS has been a hotly debated topic since the release of the Xbox Series and PlayStation 5 consoles. Leading up to the release of the consoles both companies put a big emphasis on 60FPS. Xbox's Head of Marketing even proclaimed that 60FPS would be the standard on Xbox moving forward. And while we've seen plenty of games hit 60FPS on consoles, it's hardly become the standard. But how big of a deal is it?
Today previews have come out for Hellblade 2, and while they appear positive one of the main topics people are focusing on is that it's 30FPS. A couple weeks ago Dragon's Dogma 2 released, also at 30FPS on consoles. People raised a fuss about it pre-release but you barely hear anything once people start playing and the game has sold well. I think at least part of the debate is people's needs to always find the negatives. Negativity online garners clicks much more than positivity for whatever reason, so rather then point to all the great things said about a game, the focus shifts to the bad.
That's not to say there isn't some merit to the complaints. If consumers were sold on 60FPS when purchasing these consoles it's fair to ask why they aren't getting it more consistently. But I also personally think it's a little overblown, but a lot of that is game dependant.
Fast paced shooters like Call Of Duty and Apex Legends absolutely need to be 60FPS in my opinion. Any game that is reliant on quick movements and reactions really. Racing games and fast paced action games just to name a few.
But in games like Hellblade which is a much slower paced game (for the record we didn't get to preview it so we haven't been hands on ourselves yet) or Dragon's Dogma 2 where you aren't constantly swarmed with a hundred enemies that you need to hit combos on, it's not a huge issue, at least not to me. Would 60FPS be better? Absolutely. Am I going to enjoy games like these any less because they aren't? Probably not.
For most games the answer has simply been to offer a performance mode for those that prefer 60FPS but not all games are doing that, such as the 2 mentioned in this article. I think ultimately that is the best thing to do, but that is up to the developers to put time and money into doing both.
Whether you fall into the "60FPS is a must" camp, or are more with me in the "30FPS is fine in some instances" camp, don't expect this debate to die down anytime soon. I'm sure a week or 2 from now the next big game will announce as 30FPS and it will start all over again.
