Focus Entertainment and Asobo Studio have revealed a new Performance Mode patch for A Plague Tale: Requiem.
As Focus Entertainment reveals on their latest blog post, this patch adds 60 FPS on Performance Mode, available now for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X. Focus Entertainment states that this mode will also soon be available on the Nintendo Switch version, which is a cloud gaming version.
This patch will also bring performance improvements and additional performance options on PC. The Xbox Series S did not receive performance updates, but Focus Entertainment notes that it also received bug fixes.
A Plague Tale: Requiem was launched on October 17, 2022. That means it took nearly seven months from the game’s launch before Focus Entertainment could deliver a 60 FPS experience on the latest game consoles.
But of course, if you can remember all the way back, A Plague Tale: Requiem was also one of many recent titles that launched with a litany of performance issues. While these issues did not make it unplayable or embarrassing, to the same degree that the likes of Cyberpunk 2077’s launch was, it was still a detriment for joining that club of games that were not ready for its launch date.
Interestingly enough, a month after its release, Eurogamer analyzed A Plague Tale: Requiem’s performance after its first few patches and made an astute observation: could this game reach 60 FPS if it dropped some pixels?
That is precisely how Focus Entertainment and Asobo Studio did it. In their own words:
“The 60 FPS option entails lower graphical settings. PS5 and Xbox Series X players can thus choose default Resolution Mode settings to fully enjoy the graphical excellence of A Plague Tale: Requiem; or the Performance Mode that scales the graphical resolution down, instead enhancing the gameplay sequences with even smoother action at 60 FPS.”
For what it’s worth, much like with Star Wars Jedi Survivor, A Plague Tale: Requiem launched to high critical acclaim, in spite of observable performance issues. The lesson here seems to be that the critics will look past any such issues if the game still proves to be a good experience as a whole.
We’re sure Asobo Studio were relieved that they finally got 60 FPS running on the game on consoles. While it indicates the challenges of making games based on the performance specs of current generation consoles, it also hints that future current generation games on these consoles can also be drastically improved months after release. Hopefully we get to a point where all these bells and whistles are ready for the players when they launch.
