60fps is a “developer choice” says Head of Xbox Operations Dave McCarthy

In an interview with MCV, Head of Xbox Operations Dave McCarthy sat down to explain why the team decided to call the next console from Microsoft the Xbox One X. Of course, during said interview, some other interesting information cropped to the surface such as the topical debate of 60fps.

For Xbox fans, this has been one of the major complaints about the Xbox family of consoles. 4k resolution is an admirable goal for gaming consoles, bringing more beautiful and realistic graphics to the TV screen. So why are gamers so upset that most Xbox games aren’t at 60fps?

The PC ‘Master Race’ has had access to 4k gaming in 60fps for quite a while now. With the high performance that computers have been able to achieve, many console gamers have long since converted – or at least use their PC for more demanding games. The Xbox One runs most games at 30fps with a 1080p resolution. So with the Xbox One X focusing most of its marketing on the 4k resolution, fans feel like bumping up games to 60fps should be a natural progression for the next Microsoft console that is supposedly “in a different league“.

But according to McCarthy, the job of creating higher frame rates is up to the studios that make the games (via MCV).

“We’re all about the developer choice there overall. Different developers are going to choose to do different things for different game formats. But the good news is that the Xbox One SDK that everyone writes to will be able to handle that variation. You don’t need a unique version for Xbox One X. It’s just going to know if I’m running a One X, will take advantage of it and going to feel like a premium PC experience overall.”

McCarthy went on to explain that the Xbox One X is one of the easier consoles to get developers “up-and-running in a day or two” with its SDK, allowing them more options with a 2,160 frame buffer or to increase their game’s fps optimization further.

Paired with 4k resolution televisions, the Xbox One X console is likewise an ‘elite’ console that is priced as such. Still, it’s been made clear that the newer console will give developers a chance to push their games to optional higher quality than the previous iterations in the Xbox family. Whether they take that opportunity or not, is up to them. Even so, gamers have been arguing that they’d rather see the increase of 60fps for games across the board rather than the same performance across more pixels.

It’s already been confirmed that its flagship titled Forza Motorsport 7 will be able to hit 60fps in native 4K resolution. Unfortunately, other games like Destiny 2, will be locked at 30fps for compatibility across other console devices. It remains to be seen how developers will utilize what the Xbox One X has to offer and which titles will take advantage of its native 4K capabilities.