Obsidian’s upcoming action role-playing game Avowed will only run at 30 frames per second, the developer confirmed. While speaking on the Iron Lords Podcast, Avowed art director Matt Hansen revealed that Obsidian is “targeting a baseline of 30 frames per second” for the first person, fantasy action RPG.
While it would seem that the Xbox Series X has the power to run the game at a smoother 60 frames per second, Hansen justified that for a first-person, single-player game, “you don’t really need that 60 frames.”
“We are targeting 30 frames per second, bare minimum," Hansen said. "That’s the expectation.”
He added that by not emphasizing frame rate, it allows the developer to emphasize graphics, including VFX and lighting detail.
“It’s a first-person, single-player game, you don’t necessarily need that 60 frames,” he continued. “And that allows us to get a lot juicier with VFX 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,” he acknowledged. “The game’s running pretty smooth for how visually dense it is, and that was always our goal.”
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Avowed isn’t the only Xbox exclusive to run at 30 frames per second. Last year’s sci-fi blockbuster Starfield also launched with 30 frames per second on both the Xbox Series X and S.
“I think it'll come as no surprise, given our previous games, what we go for,” Howard said at the time. “Always these huge, open worlds, fully dynamic, hyper detail where anything can happen. And we do want to do that. It's 4K in the X. It's 1440 on the S. We do lock it at 30, because we want that fidelity, we want all that stuff. We don't want to sacrifice any of it.”
Howard explained that while Starfield could reach 60 frames per second at time, they chose to lock at at 30 for “the consistency.”
“And we don't ever want to sacrifice that experience that makes our games feel really, really special,” Howard continued. “So it feels great. We're really happy with how it feels even in the heat of battle. And we need that headroom because in our games, really anything can happen.”
It’s worth noting that a post-launch update to Starfield now has the game running at 60 frames per second. Akane Austin’s Redfall was another Xbox exclusive that launched at 30 frames per second, but also receive a post-launch update to get it to run at 60 frames per second. So there is a chance that Avowed, which releases in February 2025 on Xbox Series X|S and PC, will get a post-launch update to improve the frame rate