Starfield Will Run At 30 FPS On Xbox Series X|S

Microsoft has confirmed that Starfield, Bethesda's much-anticipated open-world role-playing game, will be locked at 30fps on Xbox Series X|S.

Xbox boss Phil Spencer appeared on the Giant Bomb at Nite livestream--GameSpot's sister site--following the Xbox Games Showcase where fans were treated to a 45-minute deep dive into Starfield. He said that the game will run in 4K resolution on the Xbox Series X and 1440p on the Xbox Series S. However, the framerate will be locked at 30 FPS for performance consistency.

"At some point, not to get all geeky about it, there's render time per frame, and teams can either way to go horizontal or deep on a frame. It's a creative choice," Spencer said. "We obviously have games that are running 4k/60[fps] on the platform; it's not a platform issue. ... I trust what [Bethesda's] decisions they make and I trust what I'm playing."

"I think it'll come as no surprise, given our previous games, what we go for,” Todd Howard separately told IGN. "Always these huge, open worlds, fully dynamic, hyper detail where anything can happen..." He went on to explain that Starfield is locked at 30 FPS "because we want that fidelity, we want all that stuff."

"We don't want to sacrifice any of it. Fortunately in this one, we've got it running great. It's often running way above that. Sometimes it's 60. But on the consoles, we do lock it because we prefer the consistency, where you're not even thinking about it."

The director added that the team "don't ever want to sacrifice that experience that makes our games feel really, really special," and that it's happy with how the game feels "in the heat of battle."

During the Starfield Direct, Bethesda provided an in-depth tour of everything fans need to know about the game. Details were revealed about character creation, space dogfights, the galactic systems that can be explored in the open-world, and more.

Starfield will officially launch on September 6, 2023 for PC and Xbox Series X|S.