Is 30FPS Good Enough For An Xbox Series X|S Game?

Over the last couple of gaming generations, many console players have found themselves getting used to playing games at 30 frames per-second. With the push to HD in the Xbox 360 era, some developers began dropping frame rates to the 30FPS region, in an attempt to push visual fidelity at higher resolutions. These weren’t the first eras to see lower frame rate gaming of course, but it became somewhat the norm during this time period.

However, with the move to PS5 and Xbox Series X|S, the focus has shifted somewhat, at least for the first two years of this generation’s lifecycle. Lots of developers have actively pushed for 60FPS (sometimes even 120), often implementing multiple performance modes; a method that became popular with the Xbox One X and PS4 Pro consoles. However, are these new high frame rate targets here to stay?

Recently, it became apparent that current-gen-only Gotham Knights will be a 30FPS experience on both Xbox Series X and S (and PS5 as well). The dev team gave its perfectly understandable reasons for the move, although that hasn’t stopped folks arguing that 60 frames per-second should be the standard for the current generation of consoles. We’d like to see performance targets land on the higher side as well, but we feel things are a bit more nuanced than a blanket 60FPS baseline.

For instance, genres and styles do factor into whether we think 60FPS is truly necessary. Yes, high frame rates are always nice and we’ll often pick higher performance modes where possible, but 30FPS is still perfectly fine in many cases. First-person shooters, racing games and other genres that require fast reflex times? Yeah, we’d have a tough time going back to 30FPS with those, but we can still work with 30FPS, especially if it’s a stable frame rate overall.

As we move further into the new generation, and the Xbox One era gets left behind, we might start seeing more games aim for lower frame rates; it’s certainly happened with Gotham Knights. In order to make use of current-gen features like ray tracing, dev teams may need to bring performance targets down a notch. Plus, taking away the need to develop for Xbox One will enable teams to go in deep on the graphics front this generation. The question is, do we want that to become the norm?

A lot of us have gotten used to higher frame rate targets over the last few years, so much so that we sometimes find it a nuisance to go back to 30FPS in some of our very favourite game genres. 60 and 120 FPS targets have admittedly spoiled us over the last two years, and the thought of this generation ending up like the last two, where we’re swimming in a pool of 30FPS console gaming, perhaps isn’t the most appealing thought. Is 30FPS good enough for an Xbox Series X|S game? Sure, but we’d certainly like to see devs push for more.

But, what do you think? Is 30FPS good enough for current gen games? Vote in the poll and let us know!