DETROIT, Oct. 10 – Battlefield 6 aims for a smooth 60 frames per second on all platforms, including the Xbox Series S, a notable feat for a title developed with the current generation of consoles in mind.
After experiencing the Battlefield 6 open beta last month, I was genuinely impressed by its console performance. Even footage of the beta running on an nvidia 1060 GPU, a card that’s nearing a decade old, was a pleasant surprise. This led me to ask the developers how they achieved such solid performance.Their answer? A purposeful strategy of not pushing consoles to their absolute limits and prioritizing constant optimization throughout advancement.
Did you know?Battlefield 6 is set to launch on October 10 for PlayStation 5,Xbox Series X/S,and PC.
“We really wanted to focus on making sure that we were building a game that was going to run well on the hardware that people have,” explained Technical Director David Buhl. “We didn’t want to push to the edge and fail. We wanted to make sure that we had an experience that we could optimize, that we could get to the point where it was going to run reliably at 60 frames per second, or, you know, over 80, whatever settings you preferred. And that was our focus, right? Like, get stuff in there, get it performant, and then add [more].”
Buhl admitted this approach differs from past Battlefield titles. Previously, teams might “build a bunch of cool shit and then try to make it work.” This time, however, Battlefield 6 required continuous performance work. “Obviously, it’s not like we’re 100 percent hitting our targets throughout development. But every time we [dropped] too low, we put performance optimization efforts in place, paused work, [and said] ‘You can’t add stuff until we get this optimized,'” Buhl stated. “So that we could kind of make sure that at the end, we weren’t trying to do this giant lift of taking it from 30 frames to 60 frames, or something like that.We were taking it from, like, 55 to 60, right? And that’s a much more feasible effort.”
The Optimization Debate Ignites
While Battlefield 6 does utilize upscaling technologies like PSSR on PS5 and FSR on all consoles, the core focus remained on delivering a well-performing game across the board, even if it meant visual compromises.
This emphasis on optimization comes at a time when game performance is a hot topic. The recent launch of Borderlands 4 has drawn significant criticism for its perceived poor optimization on PC and consoles, with many players struggling even on high-end hardware. In contrast,Battlefield 6‘s beta proved playable on an older Nvidia 1060,a card below the minimum PC specs for both games.
My own experience with Borderlands 4 on both PS5 and PC has been disappointing, notably on the PS5 where frame rates have been observed to degrade over extended play sessions. Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford has defended the game’s optimization, suggesting players adjust settings or seek refunds if dissatisfied.
Battlefield 6 is scheduled for release on October 10. EA has confirmed the game will target 60 FPS on PS5,Xbox Series X/S,and PC,with some configurations,like the PS5 Pro,capable of exceeding this rate.
