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The Xbox Series S platform, “paralyzed” a whole generation of video games, he wrote on Twitter. Online discussions concerning game production have begun in response to the revelation that Gotham Knights will only support 30 frames per second on platforms, despite only being available on PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. Some people are adamant that the Xbox Series S will be a target and that the games in that category will probably be banned.
Gotham Knights developer Fuller’s post on his Discord by Marty is the beginning of today’s complex and controversial discourse. Marty explained that Gotham Knights has no performance mode. This is a mode that typically sacrifices resolution and graphics capabilities for frame rate. As such, Gotham Knights only supports 30 fps on consoles. Developer Warner Bros.’s decision drew criticism from players asking Gotham Knights for his 60fps support.
In a series of tweets, Rocksteady Senior Character Technical Artist Lee Devonalt joined Gotham in his Knights conversation. First, he focuses on what 60fps means to him and the tradeoffs needed to achieve it. In response to a question about hardware bottlenecks, he specifically mentions his Xbox Series S’s GPU. – Platform games should be “optimized for worst performance”.
Another follow-up tweet from Devonald shows that the lead developer thinks very little about his Xbox Series S. He says there’s “a game for an entire generation paralyzed by this potato.” But the Xbox Series S isn’t the only reason this generation is paralyzed. Devonald explains that Microsoft “can’t start without the other.” It’s this requirement that multiplatform games must meet to launch on the Xbox console, and coupled with the Xbox Series S’s relatively underpowered GPU, explains why DeBonaldo thinks this generation is paralyzing.
A lengthy post from Devonald to end his thoughts and withdraw from the conversation does not mention the Xbox Series S, but the problems that may exist with the current generation of consoles are “probably decided It’s not the reason behind the 30 fps knight. He says he wanted to educate about “some of the challenges that go into development and that development teams should always have the freedom to make games their way”.
To Devonald’s credit, he apologized for his Xbox Series S post. A Twitter user pointed out that DeBonaldo’s call to respect developers while attacking Microsoft’s Xbox Series S developers was hypocritical.