Obsidian has confirmed they have leveled up their work on Avowed, in the exact ways that we wanted them to.
In a Q&A on MinnMax, Avowed creative director Carrie Patel was asked what the game’s framerate would be on the Xbox Series X. She quipped, “You can get up to 60 (FPS)!”
This is a far cry from how Obsidian was talking about the game last year. At the time, art director Matt Hansen stated that the studio was targeting a minimum of a steady 30 FPS. That would, of course, be expected, and 30 FPS should be the minimum standard in 2025. But Obsidian’s messaging at the time hinted that they weren’t quite able to get the game running up to 60 FPS.
But of course, we do understand that they were likely still working on this goal at the time of the interview. So they may not have been sure if they were going to reach that goal. Alternatively, they may have expected that they could get there, but simply chose discretion as the better part of valor.
What’s interesting is a rumor appeared at the end of last month that Obsidian was able to make 30 FPS and 40 FPS modes for Avowed on Xbox Series S. Subsequently, Xbox Series X was getting 30 FPS, 40 FPS, and 60 FPS modes.
Looking back, Hansen claimed at the time that Avowed didn’t necessarily need to perform at 60 FPS. While Hansen and Obsidian caught flack for that statement, he was pointing out simply that they weren’t making Avowed to be like Bayonetta. Team Ninja’s Ninja Gaiden 4 would seemingly be the ticket for gamers who want to satiate that Xbox thirst for a high performance action game, that’s focused on motor skill gameplay.
But then, Obsidian may have unwittingly benefited from the extended delays Avowed received. Microsoft chose to steer clear from releasing head-to-head with Dragon Age: The Veilguard. That extra time may have allowed them to polish the game up to a level that AAA projects are usually not allowed anymore.
The other upside to that delay, of course, is that Avowed now looks like it could deliver, even to Dragon Age fans, what Dragon Age: The Veilguard wasn’t quite able to give to their fans. If Obsidian considered performance metrics as a secondary concern, it’s good that they were able to take care of it too. And that’s ample reason to look forward to Avowed’s release on Xbox Series X|S, Steam, Battle.net, and Game Pass, on February 18, 2025.
