I still remember the run-up to Avowed like it was yesterday. After a minor delay, Obsidian's fantasy RPG was supposed to hit PC and Xbox Series consoles in February 2025. The vibe was mostly positive, even if folks had questions about gameplay, narrative, and technical polish. Then the other shoe dropped: Avowed would not run at 60FPS on Xbox consoles. Matt Hansen, Avowed's art director, went on the Iron Lords podcast and said 30FPS would be the 'bare minimum' for Avowed, and the team wasn't necessarily aiming for more. He argued 60FPS isn't as important in single-player role-playing games, and that the lower target let Obsidian double-down on advanced VFX, visual density, and lighting. Cue the collective groan from would-be players. And honestly? I got it. 🎮

Now, looking back from 2026, that 30FPS controversy still feels like a perfect snapshot of Xbox's weird generational growing pains. It wasn't just about one game. It was about a pattern, a promise, and a whole lot of disappointed fans who felt like they were getting the short end of the stick.

Here's the hall of fame — or hall of shame — for Xbox exclusives that shipped without a 60FPS mode:

Game	Framerate situation
Hellblade 2: Senua's Sacrifice	Restricted to 30FPS
Starfield	Restricted to 30FPS at launch
Redfall	Restricted to 30FPS at launch
Microsoft Flight Simulator	Restricted to 30FPS without a VRR display

I'm not going to sit here and pretend 30FPS is unplayable. Last-gen games got on fine without higher framerates. But 60FPS was one of the most heavily touted features of this new console generation. When you drop $500 on a box advertised as 'the world's most powerful console,' you expect smooth performance. Instead, Xbox Series X has sometimes lagged behind PlayStation in framerate capability. That's a bad look, no bones about it. 😬

What really burns my biscuits is the comparison. PlayStation exclusives and third-party games like Horizon Forbidden West and Assassin's Creed Valhalla look just as good, if not better, than Avowed, but they run at 60FPS on console. So when Avowed gets capped at 30, it's not just a technical footnote. It's a tangible, easy-to-understand benchmark of technical progress — and Xbox comes up short. Players point at that frame counter and say, 'See? The most powerful console can't even keep up.' It's a frustrating narrative, and it's one that Xbox has struggled to shake.

Then there's the Xbox Series S, the cheaper, lower-spec sibling. It's great that there's an affordable option for players who don't care about advanced features or visuals. But Microsoft promised full feature and game parity between Series S and Series X at launch. Whatever a game can do on Series X, it should be able to do on Series S. Xbox has already backpedaled a bit — remember the Baldur's Gate 3 split-screen debacle? — but the company no doubt wants to keep that promise for first-party games. In a perfect world, that means games look and feel just as good on Series S as they do on Series X. In reality, the opposite might be true: Xbox games might be getting downgraded so they can run on the less-powerful system. I can't prove it, but it's not an unreasonable question to pose. 🤔

Maybe Avowed will get a 60FPS mode down the road. Maybe patches will smooth things out. But at launch, that 30FPS cap was sure to douse excitement for prospective players, if only a bit. And in 2026, with the benefit of hindsight, I can say the debate wasn't just about frames. It was about trust. It was about whether Xbox's most powerful hardware would actually feel powerful. It was about whether 'next-gen' meant more than prettier lighting and denser forests.

If I'm being fair, Obsidian's choice had real trade-offs. More VFX, denser worlds, better lighting — those things cost performance. But players hear '30FPS' and think 'choppy.' They hear '60FPS' and think 'smooth as butter.' That's just how it goes. You can talk about artistic vision all day, but a frame counter is a stubborn thing. It doesn't care about your lore. It doesn't care about your lighting engine. It just sits there, judging. And in a generation where 60FPS has become the expectation, not the exception, Xbox can't afford to keep playing catch-up.

So what's the takeaway? For me, Avowed became a case study in how a single technical decision can overshadow months of positive buzz. It wasn't the end of the world, but it was a bummer. The Series X is a beast on paper. I just want the games to feel like it. Fingers crossed that future Xbox exclusives — and maybe Avowed itself — get the performance modes they deserve. Until then, I'll keep my expectations measured and my VRR display close. 😅