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.
4 Responses
I don’t agree.
60fps was sold as a “current gen†feature. It’s not being delivered. That’s a marketing issue.
I believe it was somehow mitigated with the introduction of quality and performance modes. Users are given a choice and the promises are kept.
In situations such as this: a 1st party Microsoft game, it is hard to accept not having a choice. Promises are not being kept.
And the theory that developing 2 modes represents extra development time and less focus from developers… is also weak. Microsoft decided, this gen, to have 2 different Xbox machines, fully compatible, but with distinct hardware. Therefore, the need to support different “modes†exists, from the get go: the game – and the developers – must support Xbox X and S (worst case scenario: it doesn’t, and the build supports the least capable hardware).
Fully accepting that, in “a slow gameâ€, 60 fps are less relevant… we should still have that option.
That’s what was sold to us, by Microsoft.
The only reason a game don’t hit 60 fps. It simply can’t. 60 is standard love it hate it. When graphics fidelity hit max we see 30 fps.
The debate in favor for 30fps is only by people who do not play in 60fps. I don’t agree games need to go higher than 60 per se, that is why we have PCs. But 30fps? Let’s just make 1 thing clear. No developer on Earth WANTS to use 30fps. They HAVE to use it because the system can’t handle 60fps.
60fps is better. There is no debate here. 30fps should be limited for handhelds where the lack of power is justified and even then, I’d say 40fps would be the sweet spot for that market.
30fps is not an artistic choice ever. It is only ever done by limitations.
Adding more fuel to the XBOX 1st party 30 vs 60 debate.