Poll: Is 30fps for current-gen console games a dealbreaker?
On the choppy block.
Arkane announced its co-op shooter Redfall will be locked at 30fps on Xbox at launch earlier this week, and it sparked quite the conversation.
Though a 60fps performance mode will be patched into the game "at a later date", its absence at launch has some people reversing their decision to play Redfall when it comes out.
But is 30fps for current-gen console games a dealbreaker? To quote Wes, "no one expects Starfield to run at 60fps", but that probably won't stop a lot of us from playing it when it (hopefully) arrives in September. Harsh words from Wes, but true. Sorry Todd.
The most recent (and probably extreme) example of a similar situation which comes to mind is Pokémon Scarlet and Violet. Performance looked rough in trailers, which was then confirmed by previews. Despite targeting 30fps, the Switch struggled to hit that framerate consistently - not to mention the plethora of bugs present in the game.
But despite the performance issues, which there were clear signs of before release, Pokémon Scarlet and Violet were still massively popular. I was one of those 10m people to buy a copy of Violet in its first three days. Even though I knew performance was bad, it still looked fun to play and I do love me some jank.
Current-gen console games being locked at 30fps is an issue which has been brewing for some time. Last year's Gotham Knights and A Plague Tale: Requiem were both locked at 30fps, to name a couple of examples. Upon their release, Richard from Digital Foundry wrote a comprehensive breakdown of those games' performance, and explained why the return of 30fps console games is inevitable.
The current generation of consoles (bar Switch, somewhat) are certainly capable of delivering stable performance at 60fps, but we're seeing more and more games target 30fps on console. So where do you draw the line? Is 30fps for current-gen console games a dealbreaker?