Avowed targeting 30FPS on consoles; 'You don't need 60FPS,' art director says

Obsidian is targeting a 30FPS minimum for Avowed on Xbox Series X/S consoles, similar to Starfield at launch.

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Avowed will deliver 30FPS on Xbox Series X/S consoles at launch in order to provide a more smooth experience and prioritize graphics and visual effects. At least that's what Avowed art director Matt Hansen said in a recent 32-minute interview with the Iron Lords podcast.

"We are targeting 30 FPS, bare minimum. It's a first-person, single-player game, you don't necessarily need 60 frames,"Hansen said.

"[30 FPS] 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. The game's running pretty smooth for how visually dense it is, and that was always our goal."

Early previews for Avowed have been favorable--the game was demoed at Gamescom 2024--but it's possible Avowed was running on higher-end PCs instead of Xbox Series X/S consoles during the event.

Avowed is among a number of Xbox first-party games that have launched at 30FPS, possibly because of the Xbox Series S' comparatively weaker hardware (the Series S has a 61% weaker GPU with nearly 40% less RAM than the Series X). Other games that have launched at 30FPS include Hellblade II, Redfall, and Starfield, the latter two of which have since received 60FPS updates.

More recently, we've seen some developers like Suicide Squad artist Del Walker openly speak out against the Xbox Series S, with Walker saying he wishes the Series S "never existed."

Avowed is coming sometime in 2025 for Xbox Series X/S and PC via Steam.