Nintendo Switch game slammed for running at 24fps
Topics: Nintendo Switch, Nintendo, Bandai Namco
Featured Image Credit: Erik Mclean via Unsplash, Nintendo
Topics: Nintendo Switch, Nintendo, Bandai Namco
The Nintendo Switch is a brilliant console, and is home to some of the most pleasantly surprising ports out there - available to play on your TV or on the go, no less.
You only need to look at the likes of The Witcher 3, Skyrim and No Man’s Sky on Switch to see that Nintendo’s beloved hybrid console really packs some punch, even with games that weren’t originally built for it (not to mention some of the huge exclusives it can run, like the Xenoblade Chronicles series and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild). Perhaps that’s why it’s so shocking that a port that arrived on the system yesterday (4 May), of a 2019 game at that, runs at a rather abysmal 24fps.
If you want an example of a massive game that the Switch runs brilliantly, look no further than Xenoblade Chronicles 3.
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As GamesRadar+ reports, the game in question is The Dark Pictures Anthology: Man of Medan - a survival-horror title from Supermassive Games. Clearly, Nintendo itself thought that gamers might not be too happy about the game’s frame rate if they bought it unaware of how low it is, as there’s actually a disclaimer for it on the official eShop page.
eShop page for Man of Medan has a disclaimer that it runs at 24 FPS pic.twitter.com/25NGbyi634
— Wario64 (@Wario64) May 4, 2023
To be fair, Switch games often don’t have the highest frame rate in the world - the console itself just isn’t as powerful as the PS5 or Xbox Series X, so a 30fps target isn't uncommon for some titles. However, actively targeting 24fps is so oddly specific, and really raises some question marks about what was going on behind the scenes on this port. Perhaps the decision was made to make it feel more like a film, a medium where 24fps is the standard? Or maybe the devs were just hoping to get some gamers curious enough to see what it runs like by buying it? Joke’s on them, I don’t have the guts to sit through a horror game to find out.