‘Redfall’ for Consoles Capped at 30 FPS & Anti-Piracy Measures Added to PC – Fans Aren’t Happy

Redfall gets a little less enticing just a month before its launch.

Announced at E3 2021, Redfall is an open-world first-person shooter that can be played both single-player and multiplayer online. The game is being developed by Arkane Studios Austin, who developed the incredible Prey reboot released in 2017 to critical acclaim. Set in the fictional town of Redfall, MA, players choose between 4 different characters with their own unique skills to fight off a legion of vampires. It is one of the biggest high-profile titles coming out for Microsoft this year since Bethesda was officially acquired by Microsoft in 2021.

The game has been the cause of some controversy with it being an always-online title for even single-player, host-only story progression for co-op, and Microsoft canceled a planned PS5 version after the Bethesda acquisition. Fortunately for gamers, Arkane Studios let everyone know that they were working on patching out the online-only requirement for single-player post-launch. Microsoft has been on the defensive for the PS5 cancellation and needs some good news. Unfortunately, the newest info on the game is not great.

No High Frame Rate For You!

Redfall is less than a month away from launching and anticipation for the game is cautiously optimistic. Arkane Studios Austin puts out pretty good work when it comes to gaming. Unfortunately, they announced a big pet peeve among many gamers currently that will keep them from playing day one. The game will launch on consoles at only 30 frames per second for both Xbox Series X/S:

This is considered a really bad thing in this current gen with Gotham Knights being the biggest example of this recently. Consoles are able to reach up to 120 FPS and people are really wanting games to start out at 60 FPS by default. It is good news that they will patch it in later, but that might be too late for some.

via Microsoft

Console gamers are already incredibly frustrated by this turn of events and turning on the game’s release.

Luckily, the PC version will have 60 FPS. Unfortunately, they got some bad news too.

Redfall and DRM–Why Did It Have to Be DRM?

While it is true Redfall will have more options for FPS on launch than the console, it will have DRM when it launches. While DRM is not the end of the world, it is the choice of DRM that will upset many. That’s right everyone, Redfall will have Denuvo at launch.

Digital rights management software is a very tricky thing. While I get that companies want to cut down on piracy, they really need to figure out something better than Denuvo. For those who do not know, Denuvo is an anti-tamper technology that is the bane of PC gamer’s existence. It has been used in big titles like Total War: Warhammer 2, Assassin’s Creed Origins, Devil May Cry 5, and much more. It is incredibly controversial since it has been reported the CPU usage of the software can cause life reduction of SSDs and the much worse thing of causing games to run worse when Denuvo is in use. 

via Microsoft

It is such an issue that many games quietly remove the DRM software from the release after a while. Resident Evil Village was the most recent to remove it and Square Enix did the same for some titles back in 2021. There are ways to remove DRM from games with some reworking of the files. Unfortunately, Denuvo is the hardest to do this with and many find it easier to just not buy the game than deal with the headache.

Redfall was one of my more anticipated games of the year for the Xbox Series X. The more I hear about it though, the less I like the idea of playing it. I don’t really care about the 30 FPS vs 60 FPS, but I do understand it. I have many friends for whom this is a huge deal breaker and patching it in later doesn’t satisfy them. There are too many games coming out all the time and some games live and die based on how it starts out of the gate. Some people just don’t have time for “Ok games,” only great games.

Redfall releases on Xbox Series X/S and PC May 2nd, 2023

“Die, monster! You don’t belong in this world!” Richter to Dracula (and Gamers to Denuvo)

Author: Spider-Mike

Spider-Mike is a staff writer who is a regular co-host on the let's play channel Rage Select and regular contributor to One of US.net for over 5 years. Born in Austin, but raised on the border of Texas and Mexico. He has been gaming since the NES and jokes that he has a Masters in Spider-Man, Superman, and Dragon Ball.