With the Xbox Games Showcase and the Starfield Direct airing yesterday, there were plenty of tantalising tidbits to mull over and dissect as we fast approach its Sept. 6 2023 launch date. While details surrounding the planets, spaceship battles, and fancy yet pricey special edition were laid bare, another striking piece of intel was officially confirmed: the technical performance of the open-universe action-RPG on Microsoft’s hardware.
In an interview with IGN, the game’s director Todd Howard went on record to tackle the elephant in the room.
I think it’ll come as no surprise given our previous games what we go for. Always these huge open worlds. Fully dynamic, hyper detailed, where anything can happen. And, we do want to do that; you know, it’s 4K on the X, it’s 1440 on the S. We do lock it at 30 [frames per second]. ‘Cause we want that fidelity. We don’t want to sacrifice any of it. Fortunately, with this one, we’ve got it running great; it’s often running way above that. Sometimes at 60.
But on the consoles, we do lock it because we prefer the consistency, where you’re not even thinking about it. And, we don’t ever want to sacrifice that experience that makes our games feel really, really special. So, it feels great. We’re really happy with how it feels, even in the heat of battle. We need that headroom, because, you know, in our games, really anything can happen.
So, there you have it — straight from the horse’s mouth. Starfield will boast 4K visuals and a locked 30fps on Xbox Series X. Meanwhile, over on Series S, the game will run at 1440p, with a locked 30fps.
While Howard didn’t divulge any further information about the sci-fi RPG’s technical specifications, it’s fair to say that a performance boost via a future update or patch could still be possible, especially considering that the game is often running “way above” the current targeted frame-rate of 30fps. Still, that’s us speculating, and is not currently confirmed.
Starfield is scheduled to launch on Xbox Series X|S and PC on Sept. 6 2023, and will be available day one on Microsoft’s subscription service, Game Pass.
