Respawn clarify FPS rumors for Apex Legends on next-gen consoles

December 2022 · 3 minute read

Apex Legends design director Jason McCord has clarified comments about a possible FPS cap on next-gen consoles, explaining that he wasn’t actually referring to next-gen consoles.

FPS means “frames per second” and represents how many times your screen refreshes over a second. Generally, the rule for most games is higher FPS = smoother movement and graphics in-game.

Both the Series X and PS5 will be able to support games up to 120 FPS, double the amount from the previous generation of consoles, but not all games will be able to take advantage.

When an Apex player asked if Apex will be locked at 60fps on both next-gen machines or if the frame rate will be uncapped, McCord replied: “Nope. Locking the game on consoles lets us give a more consistent framerate for the lower-end machines.”

Nope. Locking the game on consoles lets us give a more consistent framerate for the lower end machines. If we uncapped it, you'd see much bigger spikes and valleys, and the game would feel worse.

— Jason McCord (@MonsterclipRSPN) October 9, 2020

This response implied that there would still remain an FPS cap on next-gen consoles too, to keep performance fair and consistent across the board. Most likely at 60 FPS.

However, after this news, and noticeable disappointment from players who were looking forward to next-gen optimizations, McCord has clarified, saying he misread and wasn’t specifically referring to next-gen.

Just to clarify, I didn't mean anything for next gen. We haven't announced anything. I misread the context here because it was referring to a previous tweet that I didn't see. https://t.co/1qc065ScQC

— Jason McCord (@MonsterclipRSPN) October 10, 2020

“I didn’t mean anything for next-gen. We haven’t announced anything. I misread the context here because it was referring to a previous Tweet that I didn’t see.”

This means that there’s still a chance of next-gen optimizations for Apex Legends. Even with a capped 60 FPS, console players, especially those on the lower-end versions of PS4 and Xbox One, often complain of framerate drops in gameplay. The PS5 and Xbox Series X should do a much better job of keeping things at a consistent 60 FPS.

here's an early look at Apex Legends running on an Xbox Series X preview unit. It includes gameplay and a look at Quick Resume, load times, and video options.

📺Full video here: https://t.co/Xfs9OZZ36s
⬇️ preview pic.twitter.com/SRLa2RfTGp

— Tom Warren (@tomwarren) October 6, 2020

In fact if Apex is able to keep framerate drops from happening, we’d wager being able to keep things going at a steady 60 frames a second would be a significantly more noticeable upgrade for many players than making it able to go all the way up to 120.

All that being said, Respawn’s battle royale is still doing well with a loyal community of fans, and it will look to keep things going as players eventually start to move to new consoles to play through Season 7.

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