Starfield boss reveals his studio is sacrificing graphics quality and FPS to give players more freedom of action

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Todd Howard is in charge of Starfield at Bethesda. In an interview he revealed what he sacrificed for more freedom of action for the players.

Who is the person you are talking about?

  • Todd Howard heads Bethesda along with studio director Ashley Cheng
  • Howard is the game director and executive producer for Bethesda Game Studios, responsible for Starfield
  • Howard is also responsible for the development of the Fallout and Elder Scrolls series at Bethesda
  • On top of that, he’s also the only person at Bethesda who’s allowed to talk about new information about Starfield

    • Starfield – Official Gameplay Trailer

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    What did Howard say about the graphics quality? In November 2022, Todd Howard was a guest on Lex Fridman’s podcast and answered some questions about Starfield, Elder Scrolls 6, and graphics in video games.

    During the conversation, Lex asked Howard, “What’s the trade-off between the realism of the graphics and the story?” adding, “There’s a trade-off in the [Spiel]experience, the feel of the game in terms of realism and story?”

    Howard replied that they wanted to give the player as much freedom of action as possible first, sacrificing graphics quality and rendering speed (frames per second):

    We usually start by giving the player as much freedom of action and doing as many things as possible, and for that we sacrifice some graphical quality and some speed.

    Todd Howard, Game Director and Executive Producer for Bethesda Game Studios, via YouTube

    Howard then continued, “We don’t have a problem with 30 frames per second as long as it looks really good and the simulation is running and all that stuff. So we sacrifice some of that quality for the gaming experience.”

    However, Howard also added that the relationship between a game’s graphics and the gaming experience has no bearing on manpower.

    What does that mean in practice? What Howard said in November 2022 in an interview with Lex Fridman can be easily transferred to the current state of knowledge. As of June 2023, it has been known that the Xbox version of Starfield will be limited to a maximum of 30 FPS (frames per second) (via GameStar).

    Starfield’s limited playback speed on console caused some displeasure among some fans of the game, but for a game of Starfield’s size, the limitation helps ensure a seamless visual.

    If 30 FPS is still not enough for you, a survival game in space might be better for you:

    A strong alternative to Starfield offers 60 FPS, multiplayer and you can already play it, even on PS5

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