Promised to run at 30fps on Xbox Series S/X, with multiple endings: Obsidian
Avowed, the upcoming action-RPG from Obsidian Entertainment, was recently delayed and is now scheduled for release on PC and current-gen Xbox consoles on February 18, 2025. Now, the developer has confirmed that the game will run at 30FPS on both Xbox Series X and Series S. More details about the game surfaced during the ongoing Gamescom 2024 event, where Obsidian revealed that Avowed will have multiple possible endings, numbering in the double-digit range.
Admitted performance on Xbox Series S/X
Obsidian shared details about Avowed’s Xbox Series S/X appearance on the Iron Lords Podcast on the sidelines of Gamescom in Los Angeles. Appears on the podcastPosted on YouTube on Friday, the game’s art director Matt Hansen said the studio is “targeting a baseline of 30fps” for the RPG on Xbox consoles.
“We’re primarily targeting 30fps, the absolute minimum,” Hansen said, responding to a question about the game’s console performance. “That’s the expectation.”
The developer reasoned that players don’t necessarily need 60 fps performance in a first-person single-player game and that by outputting at 30 fps, Obsidian could improve graphical quality and lighting.
“It’s a compromise we made relatively early on and we’re very happy with it. The game runs pretty smoothly for how visually dense it is, and that was always our goal,” Hansen said. “But in terms of understanding the performance specs better, we’re still working on that. It’s one of the last things you do,” he added.
Avowed isn’t the first Xbox first-party title to launch with performance on consoles locked at 30 fps. Bethesda’s Starfield launched with 30 fps on Xbox Series S/X last year, as did Arkane Austin’s Redfall. However, both games later received patches that bumped performance to 60 fps on consoles. In fact, the latest Starfield update added 60 fps performance for the game on the low-end Xbox Series S earlier this week.
Granted possible endings
In a separate interview Speaking to IGN on the sidelines of Gamescom earlier this week, Avowed game director Carrie Patel confirmed that the game would feature multiple possible endings. “I can tell you that our ending slides are in the double digits, you can end up with a bunch of different combinations of them,” Patel said.
“I mean, this is an Obsidian game, so your ending is really the sum of your choices in the game, in many pieces of content, depending on what you encountered and what you did when you found it,” she added.
Avowed was originally set to release in late 2024. Following the announced delay, which gave the Obsidian RPG some breathing room in a busy late 2024 video game release calendar, the game has now been confirmed for release on February 18, 2025 for PC, Xbox Series S/X, and Game Pass.
