Redfall won’t get its 60 fps Performance Mode until after launch

By Tomas Franzese Published April 12, 2023

Most games for PS5 and Xbox Series X/S let players choose between a Quality Mode that emphasizes resolution and a Performance Mode that ups the frame rate. While Redfall will eventually have both of those, it’s only launching with one of them, and it’s not the one you’d hope for from a fast-paced shooter.

Arkane Studios took to Redfall’s official Twitter account to explain that the Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S versions of the game will only have Quality Mode when the game comes out next month. The Xbox Series X version will run at 30 frames per second at a 4K resolution, while the Xbox Series S version shares that framerate at a lower 1440p resolution. Thankfully, the tweet does confirm that a 60 fps performance mode will come at a later date via an update.

Redfall is launching on Xbox consoles with Quality mode only:
Xbox Series X: 4K 30 FPS
Xbox Series S: 1440p 30 FPS
60 FPS Performance mode will be added via game update at a later date. pic.twitter.com/NLaGsMbwdW
— Redfall (@playRedfall) April 12, 2023

This announcement is disappointing for console players who prefer higher framerates for their fast-paced action games. As Redfall is an intense open-world shooter with lots of combat with flashy effects, the game will potentially feel more sluggish than it should be to play at only 30 fps.

WB Games Montreal’s Gotham Knights and Focus Interactive’s A Plague Tale: Requiem got into similar hot water last year when they only supported 30 fps on consoles. While those games have not gotten 60 fps updates since their October 2022 launches, Redfall fans can take respite in the fact that the game will eventually get a Performance Mode patch post-launch. If only being able to play Redfall at 30 fps is that big of an issue for you, maybe put off playing it on Xbox Game Pass until that Performance Mode update releases.

Redfall will launch for PC, Xbox Series X, and Xbox Series S on May 2. The post-launch Performance Mode update does not have a specific launch date yet.

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Gaming Staff Writer

Tomas Franzese is a Staff Writer at Digital Trends, where he reports on and reviews the latest releases and exciting…

Gaming

Major Redfall patch adds 60 fps performance mode, a stealth overhaul, and more

The four hero characters in Redfall dragging a vampire, who's reaching towards the camera with clawed hands.

Xbox exclusive Redfall just got a major patch. The update adds a long-awaited 60 frames per second (fps) mode to the game, as well as a heap of quality of life upgrades and an overhaul to stealth gameplay.
Among lots of other problems, the dame infamously only ran at 30 fps at launch on Xbox Series X and S. While Arkane Studios promised a performance mode patch was in the works prior to release, it didn't arrive until today.

On October 6, Arkane Studios and Bethesda dropped Update 2 for Redfall. The most notable addition is Performance Mode, which lets players prioritize frame rate over resolution to finally get the game to run at 60 fps on consoles. Simply navigate to the Video tab within Redfall's settings menu to activate it. The patch notes for this update claim it brings improved stability on PC, in addition to solutions to memory-based crashes and AMD GPU-related graphics corruption. The update also contains some new gameplay tweaks to hopefully make the experience better.
Redfall will now encourage stealth more, as Arkane added the ability to sneak up on and do stealth takedowns on enemies and made it clearer which weapons are silenced in menus. It also added more options for players to fine-tune aim assets and dead zones while aiming, increased the number of enemies wandering the game's open world, and added unique ping colors for each player in a multiplayer squad. You can check out the full list of patch notes to see the additional tweaks and bug fixes made.
Redfall had a notoriously rocky launch this year, so it was hard for anyone outside of Microsoft to truly know whether or not improvements to the game would actually be delivered. Bethesda's Pete Hines had previously claimed it wouldn't abandon the game, and this update is our first real indication that it's true. While this isn't a Phantom Liberty-level rework for Redfall, it certainly seems like the game is now in the best condition it's been in since launch.
Redfall is available now for PC, Xbox Series X, and Xbox Series S.

Gaming

Xbox’s 2023 games feel like the Series X launch lineup we never got

EMBARGO 10/4 12:01 AM PT: A camera angle up close to a Forza Motorsport race.

Even though we’re almost three years into the life span of the Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S, it feels like this console generation is just starting for Microsoft.
It’s no secret that Xbox was slow to start up and then maintain consistency this console generation. For example, 2020 saw the company putting out a weak console launch lineup made up of ports and remasters. While 2021 had a flurry of great games, it was followed by a comparatively barren 2022. And 2023 hasn't been perfect either (due, in large part, to the flop that is Redfall), but outside of that, this year delivered the excellent Hi-Fi Rush, the grandly scaled Starfield, solid ports of two Age of Empires games and Quake II, a new Minecraft title, and a technical showpiece in Forza Motorsport.
Looking at that varied lineup, these games showcase both the potential of the Series X and the power of Xbox as a brand. Prospects for Xbox’s lineup are up heading into 2024 too, so it feels like we’re at the proper start of the Xbox Series X and S console generation ... even if it came a few years too late.
A new beginning
Looking at the 2020 launch lineup for Xbox Series X/S, it wasn’t exactly emblematic of what the console could do. While there were some nice 4K and 60 frames per second (fps) upgrades for Xbox One games, the only new draws were a console port of Gears Tactics, the multiplayer-supporting Tetris Effect: Connected, a temporary next-gen exclusive version of Yakuza: Like a Dragon, and some smaller indies like The Falconeer and Bright Memory 1.0.

Most of those games were on or came to more platforms afterward and, in general, didn’t provide that strong of an argument for why players should stick around this console generation. But looking at many of the games Xbox has released this year, it finally feels like we have a bundle of good Xbox exclusives that show what the platform was always capable of.
In my review of Forza Motorsport, I note that the game feels like a launch title because it’s an impressive technical showpiece. It runs at 4K and 60 fps in performance mode, which is something not many games this generation have done. The closest comparable games are Astro’s Playroom and Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered on PlayStation 5, which effectively demonstrated the power of Sony's console early on.
Forza Motorsport was also built as a platform that developer Turn 10 Studios can expand over time. It plans to periodically slot in new single and multiplayer content, including new cars and tracks. A game like that makes a lot of sense early on in a console’s life span in this live-service era. It’s what Microsoft tried to do with Halo Infinite, even if that didn’t pan out as expected due to a one-year delay, and with Killer Instinct on Xbox One.

Gaming

You don’t need an Xbox Series X to play Starfield. Here’s how

Key art for Starfield

Starfield is the highest-profile Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S game since Halo Infinite, but the game isn't locked to those two consoles. Thanks to cloud gaming and Microsoft's more open-ended mentality of making its games available on a wide variety of platforms, you don't have to own one of Microsoft's current-gen systems or have the Xbox app installed on your PC.
No, it's not on PS5 or Nintendo Switch, but if you want to play Starfield while it's at the center of the video game industry zeitgeist, here are some places where it's playable other than the Xbox Series X, Xbox Series X, and Xbox PC app.
Steam

The most obvious choice if you want to play Starfield elsewhere is to pick it up on Steam. While Microsoft does have a proprietary PC launcher of its own, Microsoft now consistently releases its own games through Valve's launcher. Bethesda joined Xbox Game Studios in 2021 and has a long history of making its games available on Steam as well, so it's not too surprising that Starfield is available on the platform.
Starfield already proving quite popular on the platform too, having peaked at 266,000 concurrent players, according to SteamDB at the time I'm writing this. If you're looking for a way to play Starfield natively on the hardware you own without using a Microsoft platform or service, this is your best option. It'll run on Steam Deck too, although that's not the only way to experience Starfield on the go.
Xbox Game Pass app on Android