Starfield's 30fps cap is best explained by a big pile of sandwiches.
During the recent Starfield Direct, producer Jamie Mallory revealed that when playing Starfield, she likes to "go the more piracy routes", which includes stealing everyone's sandwiches and hoarding them. "I steal all the sandwiches and put them in my cargo hold that I have specifically for sandwiches," she says, and sure enough, on the screen we saw a huge stack of sandwiches. Mallory's thieving antics are not only hilarious but also perfectly demonstrate why Starfield is locked at 30fps on console.
This was pointed out on Twitter by Digital Foundry's John Linneman, who wrote, "While it's used as a gag in the video, this sandwich pirate concept highlights one reason why 60 FPS would be tough to achieve", Linneman explains. "Like prior BGS titles, it seems that Starfield tracks the location and position of arbitrary items in the world. Given the scope, this stuff begins to add up."
John Linneman of Digital Foundry explains why Starfield can't get 60 FPS.Basically Starfield tracks everything in the world(which is large).Starfield is truly the most impressive RPG game ever pic.twitter.com/XeYdYcUqCtJune 12, 2023
While some fans are less than thrilled at the news, Donnie Carlone, a developer at Sony Santa Monica, also recently defended Bethesda's decision to lock Starfield at 30fps. "It's not a sign of an unfinished game," Carlone pointed out on Twitter. "It's a choice. 60fps on this scale would be a large hit to visual fidelity. My guess is they want to go for a seamless look and less 'pop in'."
Sony Santa Monica developer educates DreamcastGuy on Starfield running at 4k 30 FPS.Even PlayStation developers have to call out PlayStation fanboys. These dudes are cringe and don't have a life pic.twitter.com/8PWjjuFJeIJune 12, 2023
Of course, it's not just all about stealing sandwiches as there's an impressive amount of freedom to virtually every aspect of Starfield, from the seriously detailed character creation system to exploration in "the biggest city" Bethesda's ever built and far beyond.
Following the Starfield Direct, our own Heather Wald is completely sold on Bethesda's new adventure.
