🎮 As a player who spends too much time tweaking graphics settings, I never expected to care so much about a frame rate target. Then Avowed came along. The game had already been delayed from 2024 to February 18, 2025, so every new scrap of news felt precious. During Gamescom week, Obsidian confirmed something genuinely interesting: Avowed would have multiple endings, and none of them would be treated as a 'true' or 'canon' sequence. That was the kind of RPG promise I love. It suggested my choices would matter, not be funneled into one sanctioned outcome. But the very next day, the mood shifted. It was confirmed that Avowed would target 30 frames per second, not the 60 FPS many of us expect from modern AAA releases.

According to an interview on the Iron Lords Podcast, Art Director Matt Hansen and Production Director Ryan Warden spoke about performance. Hansen said: 'We are targeting 30 frames per second, bare minimum. That’s the expectation. It’s a first-person, single-player game, you don’t necessarily need that 60 frames, and that allows us to get a lot juicier with VFX and lighting and all this other stuff. It’s a trade-off we opted to make relatively early, and we’re really happy with that. The game’s running pretty smooth for how visually dense it is, and that was always our goal.'

I understand that trade-off. VFX and lighting can make Eora feel dense and magical. As someone who loves Obsidian's world-building, I want every spell, torch, and fungal cavern to pop. But 60 FPS is not just a number. It is smoother camera motion, lower input latency, and a more comfortable first-person experience. When I play a first-person game, the camera is my eyes. At 30 FPS, every pan can feel heavier, and fast combat can blur. That is why so many fans were upset.

On Reddit, one user wrote: 'This is the wrong call. The right thing to do would be to give X owners a performance or graphics/fidelity option, then recommend the graphics option in that menu.' Another said: 'Why do they do this? They promised 4k 60fps when selling Xbox Series X. It’s on the box when you buy it, but they launch every game at 30fps and claim it’s the most powerful console ever.'

Those comments capture the frustration. It is not that 30 FPS is unplayable. It is that players have bought new TVs and monitors specifically for higher frame rates. They have been told this generation is about choice. A performance mode and a fidelity mode would let each player decide what matters more. Some will always choose visuals. Others, especially in first-person games, will choose frames. Taking that choice away feels like a step backward.

Context matters, too. Avowed is not the first Xbox exclusive to launch at 30 FPS. Starfield only recently got a 60 FPS patch, and Senua's Saga: Hellblade II launched at 30 FPS with no word on a potential patch. In other words, this is almost par for the course with recent Xbox releases. Still, that does not mean fans should stay quiet. If anything, the pattern makes the disappointment sharper. When it happens again and again, it starts to feel less like a creative trade-off and more like a default setting.

Now, in 2026, I can look back at that week with some distance. The multiple-endings news still excites me more than any technical argument. An RPG where no ending is canon is an RPG that respects player agency. It means my decisions are not just variations on a predetermined truth. That is the kind of ambition I want from Obsidian. But the 30 FPS debate has not faded from memory. It became part of a larger conversation about what this console generation actually delivers.

Here is how I break it down:

Aspect	What Obsidian said or did	How I feel as a player
Performance target	30 FPS minimum, with 'juicier' VFX and lighting	Visually rich, but not ideal for first-person smoothness
Endings	Multiple endings, no true or canon ending	Exactly what I want from a choice-driven RPG
Player choice	No performance/fidelity toggle mentioned at the time	I want the option, not a forced trade-off
Platform context	Xbox exclusives like Starfield and Hellblade II also faced 30 FPS talk	The pattern makes the frustration understandable

I do not envy developers. Every frame costs something. Lighting, particles, density, and scope all compete for limited hardware resources. Hansen's explanation is honest. He and his team chose atmosphere over frame rate. For a single-player RPG, that can be a valid artistic decision. But I also believe that a performance mode is not a betrayal of art. It is a courtesy to players. It says, 'We trust you to choose how you want to experience this world.'

If Avowed delivers a dense, reactive, ending-rich RPG, I will still play it. I will still explore every corner, hoard every unique item, and argue with companions. But I will also wonder what a 60 FPS mode would have felt like. In 2026, my hope is simple: let the next Obsidian game give me the juice and the frames. Let me choose. That is the real next-gen feature. ⚔️