Starfield struggling on PS5 and PS5 Pro, uncapped FPS and PSSR causes crashing, users seek refunds on PS Store

Starfield just released on PlayStation 5, but in somewhat predictable Bethesda fashion, the game is having some performance issues leading to crashing, FPS stutters, and even infinite loading screens.

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All signs show that Starfield is doing well on PS5, having broken into the top 10 best-sellers (right now Starfield is #6 on the US PlayStation Store's top sellers list). What's not so great are the reports of widespread crashing and big frame rate drops, even on PS5 Pro.

Bethesda recently made lots of fanfare about Starfield's various enhancement features on PlayStation 5 Pro, but due to glitches and problems with the game, these upgrades are a kind of double-edged sword for some PS5 Pro owners.

Gamers are reporting widespread issues with Starfield on both PS5 and PS5 Pro, with the game-breaking bugs leading to things like freezing every 10 minutes or so, unpredictable (and replicable) crashes, and even an eternal loading screen loop.

FPS slowdowns also occur in populated areas of the game, but this has always been the case, even on the Xbox Series X.

Longtime Bethesda gamer and YouTuber Micky D had interesting things to say about Starfield's performance on PS5 Pro:

"It's been quite the interesting experience so far, and it hasn't been the most pleasant, I'm sorry to express. For reference, I've been playing on a PlayStation 5 Pro, and I believe that this is where most of the issues come about,"Micky D said in arecent video.

"Number 1, the game notably has quite a few performance issues, especially in the bigger towns--New Atlantis, Akila, the frames can really, really start to chug here. Even when you're playing on a PlayStation 5 Pro on performance, it chugs. You'll be going through the game with pretty much smooth performance but then you'll get to one of these big towns and you'll get one of these huge frame drops."

Starfield's biggest issues on PS5 and PS5 Pro

• Uncapped FPS option causing in-game problems
• Infinite loading screens
• Crashing relating to PS5 Pro enhanced options
• Outpost builder is buggy and leads to crashes
• Scanner can freeze the game
• Crashes during ship building Forward boost on the rover can crash the game
• Users report crashing after reaching 20 hours or so, possibly related to a questline progression and/or accumulating items, etc

In a recent in-depth analysis, Digital Foundry says that it was also disappointed by Starfield's PS5 version, outlining multiple hitches with the game's performance.

"Overall, I'm not too happy about this port. I think it's kind of sloppy," Digital Foundry's Ollie Mack said in a recent video.

"The number one issue here is just the crashing. It's crashing unacceptably, way too much. I got about 4 or 5 crashes in my playtime."

"There are weird things that are broken, like the VSync toggle, there's also things like sometimes the configuration wouldn't stick in some modes, like it would be set in performance mode at 60FPS and it was actually running with visual settings at 30FPS."

These problems have led to users seeking refunds, and Bethesda has yet to respond to the game's growing performance controversy on the platform.