First showcased in 2020, Avowed is an upcoming fantasy action RPG by Obsidian Entertainment that’s set in the same universe as the Pillars of Eternity Series. In January, it was confirmed that the game would be released late into 2024, but it was later pushed to early 2025.
This gave the game some breathing room and the developers a few more months to iron out issues. Although more development time is always a good thing in the current gaming landscape, it seems like Avowed will still launch without the bare minimum feature, 60 FPS mode.
Avowed Won’t Launch with a 60 FPS Mode
Even though the Xbox Series X is packed with power, developers crafting games for the console often struggle to reach a stable 60 fps. This has become an issue that has caused a lot of outrage in the community in recent years.
Many hoped that the upcoming Avowed would break the tradition and finally hit the 60 FPS window, but unfortunately, it looks like that won’t be the case, as confirmed by the studio.
Given how frequent it is for Xbox exclusives to now release with a basic 30 FPS target, many in the community suspect that catering to both Series X and the weaker S is to blame. Even though the smaller console is great for less demanding titles, it’s not capable of hitting the benchmark set by its bigger sibling.
Although it might be the case that Series S can’t handle visually dense titles such as Avowed running at 60 FPS, it’s still quite frustrating that developers haven’t included an option to let players know how they want to experience their games.
Having the feature to choose between performance and visuals isn’t a brand new concept, so launching without such functionality is quite weird, especially considering the fact that many of PlayStation’s exclusive games include the setting.
Why is Obsidian Locking Avowed at 30 FPS?
In a recent interview with Iron Lords Podcast, Avowed‘s production director, Ryan Warden, and art director, Matt Hansen, were asked about the game’s framerate targets for console players.
Hansen stated that the RPG’s performance is “one of the last things” that the studio wants to focus on, but they’re currently targeting a bare minimum of 30 FPS for the game.
The art director believes that gamers don’t need 60 FPS gameplay for a first-party title, and designing the game around a 30 FPS range has allowed the development team to boost lighting and visual density. The developers are quite happy with this questionable trade-off.
It’s worth keeping in mind that Avowed is built on the infamous Unreal Engine 5, which cripples current-generation consoles. Even Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2 was locked at 30 FPS due to the game engine.
It’s quite frustrating to see that such a highly anticipated game is another Xbox-first-party title this generation that’s coming without a proper 60 FPS mode. Considering how much Microsoft flaunts the capabilities of Xbox consoles, this is surely concerning news. Let’s hope that with the upcoming updates, developers can add a 60 FPS patch to the title.
Do you think the studio has made a blunder by not bringing a 60 fps mode for Avowed at launch? Let us know in the comments.
