In case you missed it, Outer Wilds is now available on both Xbox Game Pass and PC Game Pass (for the second time). Perhaps you’ve heard amazing things about this game, which wouldn’t come as a surprise — a lot of those things have been said by a lot of people. There is one thing, though, that might hold you back from playing Outer Wilds: it lacks a 60 FPS patch. On the newest Xbox machines, it is locked tight at 30 FPS.
Outer Wilds originally released back in May 2019. That was over a year and a half before the Xbox Series X and Series S made their debut, so we can’t fault the game for not launching then with a better frame rate. But given its recent move to Xbox Game Pass, we feel like it is the perfect time for such an update to happen.
So many are about to experience this gem for the very first time. To its developer, Mobius Digital: please let them experience the best version of it possible.
First-person games really need it
Outer Wilds takes place from a first-person perspective. At 30 FPS, this severely detracts from the experience. I’ll be the first person to tell you that I’m a bit spoiled by all the higher frame rates present in current-gen titles. But I can just as easily go back to 30 FPS in a third-person action game or RPG. With first-person titles, I can’t.
The difference comes in how you’re viewing the action. In a first-person setup, you’re at the center of it. You can’t see the character you’re controlling because you are the character. The camera is showing you how the game’s world would look through your eyes.
Imagine having to live your life, drive your car, react to things, etc. at 30 FPS and you’ll get a sense of why this frame rate doesn’t work or feel great in this game. This is what made the PC version of Outer Wilds the no-questions-asked definitive experience. That was able to go higher and the game looked and felt a lot better as a result.
The fans want Outer Wilds at 60 FPS
This post and its sentiment won’t come as any surprise to Mobius Digital. The studio already knows that Outer Wilds would be a lot more enjoyable at 60 FPS because gamers across platforms have been saying it repeatedly.
Unfortunately, the response from Mobius has always been the same: crickets. The studio hasn’t replied back with a, “Yeah, that would be cool! We’ll think about working on it!” or “Actually, we’re on it and should have more soon.” Instead, the Mobius Digital Twitter account has flat-out ignored those tweets.
It’s a shame, because a 60 FPS patch for Outer Wilds would certainly do the game a lot of good. A lot of people will probably be turned off by the low frame rate experience. They’ll miss out on one of 2019’s best games because their console of choice doesn’t play it at 100 percent.
Hopefully Mobius Digital decides that updating Outer Wilds for the current, more powerful console generation is worth the time and effort. If it happens, I’ll be the first to tell everyone to go play the Xbox Series X/S and PlayStation 5 versions of the game. Until then, I can’t really recommend those. You’re better off on PC.
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