Bethesda’s Starfield runs at 30fps on Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S, but stupid gamers believe it not only should run at 60fps, but that it can. In response to this belief, a small crowd of gamers have launched a Starfield 60fps petition to force Bethesda into giving them a higher framerate.
Posted on online petition website Change.org, the new online petition is simply titled: “60 frames Starfield”. The post asks for Bethesda to introduce a “performance mode” for the sci-fi RPG that allows the game to run at higher framerates.
“Starfield is a great game,” reads the petition made by someone who has yet to play the game. “It's sad to see the lost opportunity to add 60 frames in exchange for lower quality [visuals]. The game has huge potential and the game may even get the game of the year. It would be sad to play it without the 60 frames. So please Bethesda add performance mode.”
At the time of writing, the poorly-crafted Starfield petition has somehow garnered over 200 signatures by gamers who believe Change.org petitions do anything to sway game developers’ minds. In fact, over 60 of those signatures are from today.
As expected, the comments left on the Starfield petition are from angry gamers that know nothing about game development unhappy at Xbox’s biggest exclusive being 30fps on console.
“Xbox first party studio 30fps bulls*it,” reads one comment. “Stop pushing 4K and stupid Ray tracing/graphics and gives smooth gameplay. Xbox is a joke, redfall was 30fps pile of dogs*it and then they use more excuses to be lazy and not give us 60fps on Starfield.”
However, there is a reason that Starfield is locked to 30fps on console. As Starfield Creative Director Todd Howard has pointed out, the decision to lock the game’s framerate was made for stability. There are parts of the game where Starfield can hit a consistent 60fps, but in other areas — such as its gorgeously dense cities — the game drops down to 30fps. In fact, we wouldn’t be surprised if it can even drop below that.
Other technically minded outlets such as Digital Foundry have discussed this 30fps cap at length. Due to Starfield’s massive simulations that are constantly run in the background to track every character and object in its massive world, the game being locked to 30fps makes the most sense.
There is a chance that players will be able to unlock the framerate when Starfield mods come to Xbox Series consoles, just like with Fallout 4 and Skyrim: Special Edition. If you want to play with an uneven framerate, then you can wait until then.
Starfield launches on PC and Xbox on September 6, 2023. Fans who shell out extra for the game’s Constellation Edition will be able to play on September 1st. The game is also available on Xbox Cloud Gaming for PC, Xbox One and Mobile.