Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2 Runs at 30 FPS on the Xbox Series X|S - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 04 April 2024 / 5,463 ViewsDeveloper Ninja Theory is set to release Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2 next month and the first previews of the game have started to appear online.
GamePro says Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2 "looks stunning" and the "game world is bursting with details, the water looks damn realistic, fog and steam envelope the environment in an atmospheric wave."
The cutting edge visuals does have one downside and that is it runs at 30 frames per second with dynamic resolution on the Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S. There will be no graphics modes available on the consoles that will lower the visuals to improve the framerate.

The visual effects director on the game Mark Slater-Tunstill stated this is to help the game feel more "cinematic," similar to movies that run at 24fps. GamePro said the game runs at a smooth 30 fps and it didn't bother them during their play session.
Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2 will launch for the Xbox Series X|S, PC via Steam and Microsoft Store, and Xbox Game Pass on May 21.
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can contact the author on Twitter @TrunksWD.
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That's fine. This game is clearly a graphical showcase. It's single player in 3rd person. It's going to be like playing A Plague Tales Requiem and I wasn't bothered with 30FPS.
The first game was also 30fps and that was a visual and audible treat for PS4/XBO. Mid gen systems gave it a bit of a boost, but not enough to remain consistent at 60fps. it wasn't until the PS5/Series came along to do that. So, this game will likely get the similar treatment from something like a PS6/Next Xbox.
The way I see it (this is just me) 60 is ideal for faster paced games (shooters, racing, fighting) while 30 is ideal for slower games (puzzle, rpg, adventure). This fits into the later more so than the former.
Ps4 pro could run it 60fps
it could hit 60 but not all the time. it was mostly in the 45-50 range. One X was better but still only in the 50-55 range.
Whats problem to add 60- or 40+ modes?
One thing I genuinely find interesting is that people watch all of a games demos and trailers in 30fps completely happy with what they're seeing... and then suddenly when an article details a game will run exactly as they've seen (30fps) suddenly it's unbearable?
Is it a latency thing? I've never had issue with latency in recent single player games I've played.
Is it a camera movement thing? For sure when you're controlling a camera lower frame rates can be a headache especially for intense camera whips or fps'.... but for games where the camera is often cinematic and designed focused to be automous/self orientated I find it less of an issue.
Lastly I will say Motion Blur looks better at 30fps then 60fps (bigger jumps in movement per frame). I think camera motion blur can be a bit jarring for some if it's constantly blurred but I think low angle blur on camera moves with high angle per object blur is a great solution.
Which is fine.
Wow!!! Not even a 60 fps performance mode????
On consoles? Why would you sacrifice half its visuals for Frames on a Cinematic game?
Can you explain why you believe this game needs it. What do you believe is the goal of the developers in crafting this game? Do you believe they are more interested in making a story driven game where they pour all of their resources into the presentation or are they going for a more action game like GOD of War. While I personally would prefer if they did try for a more action oriented game, I can see them taking this approach like Alan Wake 2.
Isn't FSR 3 going to consoles? If so couldn't they use that to get 60fps? Or like other games. give players a performance mode option.
No you need 60fps for Frame gen as anything less is a choppy mess.
I get third parties not bothering with 60fps anymore on consoles. But for Microsoft themselves to abandon it, I'd say is pretty wild, usually first party games are well optimized and come with a plethora of options. This game not being able to run in 60fos on Series X, whilst it can run on Series S is pretty odd to begin with. This game is not a CPU heavyweight like DD2 and Starfield.
I think it's because they're using UE5 and that engine is very CPU intensive from what I've heard
Various questions.
1) Really it's 2024 and they are trying the "cinematic" angle?
2) "the frame rate can only be increased on the PC" so that means the PC version is less cinematic?
3) Why allow the PC to change framerate but not Xbox? Is this the Xbox Series S?
Because on PC you can have a way more powerful CPU/GPU? I mean this is pretty obvious...
Look at Dragon Dogma 2. Uncapped FPS is barely hitting 30FPS (and unless you have a good VRR it is pretty flunky at best); and new games with high CPU/GPU usage will all be capped or around 30FPS. And this is the same on Play Station 5 or Xbox Series X, not at all because of the Series S. You talked like this issue of 30FPS is just with the Series S... No, it is not.
I mean I don't understand people coming with that kind of stuff, this is "physical", if you game is too demanding you are lowering the framerate. Like it or not, consoles are crap compared to PCs And PC scale WAY WAY WAY higher. So locking the framerate on console to get a smooth experience while having the option to increase on PC, just make plain sense. Why are people still asking this question in 2024...
Full bullshit. Its not problem for devs to add another one or two modes. 40+ fps. Not problem at all. If game was published by Sony it will have min 2 modes.
Fixed hardware where PC is not. It's like having a house of a certain size, you have to a make of choice or what to put in it. However if someone has the ability to constantly expand updated their house, they can accommodate it to fit anything they want.
As far as cinematic goes it's subjective. Smoother motion does not equal better in any visual art form other than games. Lower latency, yes. But there are visual differences between 30/60fps such as the exaggeration of movement and impact on motion blur.
1) limited GPU on consoles, also limits FPS;
2) It depends on the PC. If you have a PC with an RTX 30XX to RTX 40XX, of course it will run well. In terms of TF, the RTX 3060 is almost double that of the XBox series X.
3) Processes become expensive when too flexible. If you have limited hardware, why give users the ability to change lots of things? Would you be happy playing at 1080p 60 FPS or 720p 120 FPS?
Better to spend energy optimizing the game for a stable FPS (30FPS) and fixing bugs.
Say this shit to Sony devs or Alan Wake 2 or Avatar devs.
I don't get the way people are reacting to this, that's fine. If you want to play in 60 FPS (or higher) get a PC. Consoles will always have 30 FPS games, no matter how powerful they are.
Many people buy consoles because they can't afford a high end PC but when they are sold those consoles on the idea of "most powerful console ever", they kind of expect the games made by the same people selling the console to achieve things promised to them.
This game being 30 FPS is fine, if that's what it means to get the game running (or looking cinematic) but people will still want the console to deliver on what they were sold.
I don't have a Series X, but did they promised 60 as a standard to the players?
But like I said, if you're playing on console there's always going to be 30 FPS games. If 60 FPS is something that you truly value, then you really should play on PC. It's never going to be a standard. This gen we had a long cross gen period, now with more and more games coming only to the newer consoles I'd expect more and more 30 FPS games to be released.
Yes they did promise it. Aaron greenberg on twitter specifically stated that 60fps is the minimum for Xbox series consoles. People who spent 500$ on a XBSX didn't do so to get the same framerate as the 300$ S
Aaron actually said it would be the standard, however followed it up with "Developers have the flexibility in how they use the power, so a standard or common 60fps is not a mandate". If you're going to try quote someone, at least do 30 seconds of research, unless you willingly want to lie.
"60 fps is the standard". "Worlds most powerful console". Eats monsters for breakfast". These are all quotes from Xbox team. Instead of calling me the liar, why don't you call the people that actually lied the liars? They said XBSX was targeting 4k 60....and Hellblade 2 is roughly 1080p 30?! That's not good enough relative to their marketing claims.
Whats the problem to add another one or two modes? Its not cpu bound game.
How do you know?
Where do you get that technical knowledge of the CPU requirement? My guess is that you have access to some sort of alpha obvisouly cause other than that there is no way to know other that coming out with this out of your behind?
Video killed the radio star.
I’ll wait for the complete version on PS5.
Will never happen.
Sea of Thieves is 6 years old.
And hi-fi Rush isn't even a year and a half old.
The point is at least wait until all the xbox exclusives come to Playstation before declaring others aren't coming.
I'd wait a year see if any others get announced.
Keep hope alive but I believe any franchise game you will be waiting a long time. Smaller games, service games, yeah I can see them coming. Games that are going to define Xbox in the future, naw.
Sure. I'm more or less taking a shot at "never". I wouldn't wait to play it hoping it comes to Playstation, but I also think "never" is clueless.
If you care about the studio making enough money to make another game, you should hope it comes to PS. Gamepass day and date is going to destroy the sales of this game and they don't make money off of gamepass "plays"
PC and mobile are bigger markets than Playstation. It's better for Microsoft to focus on launching day one games optimized for these platforms, and then analyze the launch of other games on a case-by-case basis.
They why is GTA6 not launching on PC day one then? If the market was bigger than PS they wouldn't be snubbing PC to prioritise PS
You speak based on feeling. On VGChartz get the number of consoles sold, then access Newzoo and look for market share of gaming platforms.
I guarantee you will find the following numbers:
PS4 + PS5 = 172,550,000 (43.46%)
Switch = 138,500,000 (34.88%)
Xbox ONE + Series = 86,000,000 (21.66%)
(VGChartz)
Mobile = 49%
Consoles = 29%
PC = 22%
(Newzoo’s games market revenue estimates and forecasts by region and segment for 2023)
If at this point we consider that the 29% of consoles is divided between Playstation, Switch and XBox, then the real market share of each console is:
Playstation = 43.46% 29% = 12.60%
Switch = 34.88% 29% = 10.12%
XBox = 21.66 * 29% = 6.28%
I am supported by two sources, in addition I have proven my statement mathematically.
As for the question of GTA VI not being released on PC, it's simple...
The more flexible your process, the higher the costs associated with them. If you focus on three hardware (Playstation 5, XBox series X and S), then you can focus on much better optimizations than if you focused on consoles and PC. Have you ever stopped to think about how many video cards there are on the market? Of the main ones we have NVidia and AMD, and from these two manufacturers we can get the RTX 20XX, 30XX, 40XX, RX 5XXX, RX 6XXX, RX 7XXX series.... Can you imagine the hell it is to optimize for all GPUs from the market? By launching on consoles there is the possibility of generating revenue earlier and focusing on the quality of the game, which means the studio has more time to focus on other hardware.
You realize MS owns Ninja Theory, yes? They don’t have to worry about having enough money for another game.
And I’m sure MS accounts for GamePass when they are analyzing first party sales.
Full lies. At AAA-gasmes sales pc is absolute outsider. Overall console sales are better and in majority of games pone ps5 is bigger than pc. Pc is for counter-strike 2.
The console version must be more optimized than the PC version, after all, one is limited hardware with a defined CPU, GPU and RAM, while the other is combinations of parts from different manufacturers. I can say that after some updates the PC version will always be better than the console one, whether in resolution or frame rate.
Sure, so following your logic about what is clueless or not; having the next Spiderman on Xbox is possible. Saying that it will 'never' happen is clueless. after all cause "nobody" knows what is the future. You see how this can go right? At this rate, you cannot really talk about anything cause everything is possible.
Big AAAs are exclusive on consoles; that's how it is now. Nothing suggests that it will change anytime soon other than people speculating out of thin air just because small and/or service games are multiplatform like Minecraft was for years; anything else is pure speculation (or wishes or nonsense from the console war kids). So, saying that it is clueless to go with what is actually happening versus pure speculation is kinda gold...
Now if you want to talk about "what if..." yah, sure, anything can happen...
It's possible sure. Like how MLB show was "never" going to be on xbox. Then it was.
Feels like that was an attempt at a gotcha. Sorry it failed.
No it is okay :) You agreed with what I said; so at the end you also understood that your previous post made little sense. That’s what I was looking for, thank you.
Hi Fi Rush is a small Niche title, same with Penitment while Grounded and Sea of Thieves as GAAS games which benefit being multiplat.
Waiting in hope. It might or might not ever come.
"Might or Might not" is a far better response than "never".
Then say that about everything and not have any meaningful discussion cause everything can happen in your world :)
You seem rather confused. I'd question what meaningful discussion you could have over "never".
Never means every possibility, no matter what is reduced to zero. Where is there any discussion if everything to talk about is reduced to nothing?
You just seem desperate to be anti anything I say.
Rest assured I’m not confused :)
But we can continue this if you want with you trying to tell me that I’m confused, or whatever you think is going to be impactful or make you feel like you have some sort of higher edge in this back and forth with your non sense responses? I mean just keep going if it makes you feel better, I will leave it there :)
Actually no it does not. Every service game yeah, they will go multiplat because those games make sense. Games like Grounded make sense. Smaller titles make sense but what does not make sense is any franchise games. Anything that will define the Xbox doesn't make sense as long as MS continue to sell hardware.
According to Phil nothing is off the table. So even for them it does make some sense. They've already discussed bringing Halo to PS before so even MS themselves see it as a possibility.
Yeah they throught about it if Sony allows GamePass on PS, and Sony wont let that happen, so no Halo.
Nope. This was an interview done by Moore where he explained they considered it. Way before game pass was even a thing. Phil would have made it clear these games will never go unless game pass is allowed but he didn't do that. What he did do was make it clear that no game is off the table when it comes to porting it to PS. I don't understand how people can keep saying "XXX game will not go to PS". Phil Spencer himself has already told everyone that no game is off the table. How much more clear can he make it? Does he have to list every single franchise they have and say it's possible they come to PS before people get it?
Infinite came out after GamePass...
It wasn't infinite they were talking about. This was before Phil was even in charge. They had talks about moving Halo to PS. Do you know the interview I'm talking about? Just google "MS considered bringing halo to PS". It was a good article.
Anyways Phil was asked straight up if anything is off the table and he said no. We don't need to guess or add stipulations to his answer. He outright told us nothing is off the table.
You understand Phil is well aware of MS plans and future. He would have know of GP before it even hits paper. The plan was to bring GP to all platforms, thats how other platforms gain Xbox major AAA games, thats the catch. Its to benefit MS. If Sony and Nintendo say no to GP, they are saying no to the plethora of Xbox Games.
Phil and Co. Have always said that games are case by case. That doesnt mean everything over time. If you brought a PS expecting Halo to finally cross over to PS, than you better hope you are immortal.
Nothing is off the table but does just like for Sony their franchise games going to PC was not something they were looking to do but here we are. In marketing, never say never as then it puts you in a restrictive scenario if you need to change strategy. Phil knows from experience, never box yourself into a corner. Does that mean you are going to see Halo on PS. Maybe, I can definitely see Halo MP service game on PS. Actually, I think that would be a very smart move. All service games should be Multiplate because it really does not make sense to limit your player base to just one platform. How do you think Call of Duty always sells huge amounts even when they have so so reviews and even years. If you are expecting Halo SP on PS, as long as MS continue to sell hardware, that probably is not going to happen, but MS would love for every PS owner who decides to play Halo MP service game to get the jones for Halo SP and get an Xbox or purchase the game on PC or subscribe to GP on PC. There are multiple ways to skin a cat as the saying goes.
Will never happen but even if in an alternate universe this would be possible, how do you think they will achieve 60FPS on the Play Station 5 if they cannot on the Series X?
I'm very curious to see your technical breakdown...
Who said they couldn't achieve it? They just said they aren't doing it to make it look better, more like movies.
You understand that they are doing it on PC tho... ? Right?
Do I need to go further in my explanation or you still don't get it or?
I think you probably need more if you posted this in the first place anyway, so here we go: Will you also pretend that they want it to look "better" on Series X/S but not PC, then? I mean, come on... It is pretty obvious why it cannot be achieved on consoles versus PC and while 24FPS / 30 FPS is closer to movies; they are talking about CAPING it versus UNCAPED which would result in a worse presentation on console as the framerate will be very funky. Cannot believe I had to actually explain it.. but w/e.
Its veru poor decision by devs. There is no problem to add another 60- or 49+ mode. And forget about pc.
You know physics right? How do you know that there is not problem for that? You realize this is 100% dependant on the game need in GPU/CPU.
Or do you believe that all games out there that did not run in 4K/240FPS on the Nintendo 8 bits were because of poor decision of the devs?
Wait if you want but nothing is said that the game will one day arrive on PlayStation.
I am increasingly convinced that if I want to play all games above 60 FPS at 4K I will have to build a high end PC. I don't believe the PS5 PRO will run all games at 60 FPS at 4K, even if I had 20 or 30 TF. I'm sorry, but anyone who believes this lives in a world of fantasies.
Anyone buying Hellblade 2 for reasons other than visuals and story telling, you are doing it wrong.
Alan Wake 2 delivered 60 fps mode at 846p using FSR 2, this game should offer it as well
Hahaha jayzus even the first one had performance mode,
How the mighty have fallen,
Stuck in 30 fps in 2024 beyond...
Meanwhile and still 2001: Gran Turismo 3 60 fps
PC player here so I haven't this problem AH AH AH AH AH !
No seriously the only thing that kept me not really interested by this game is that it is only as long as the first one. Perhaps at 10€ in the future.
We need to boycott every game running at 30 FPS. It's the only way they'll learn.
The only solution is something similar to what MS did With the XBSS and XBSX. Launch both consoles together and have a cheap console that plays games at 30, and then have a more expensive console that is specifically designed to take the cheap console 30fps and run it and 60fps. The Expensive one is twice as powerful in GPU and CPU to allow for it. The mistake MS made with the XBSX is, the GPU is 3x more powerful but the CPU is the same! What was the point of that?!
More tragic news for the Xbox.
That would only be the case if the game suck.
I think because of Gamepass sales of this game are going to be terrible and it will release on PS5 before the end of the year. Just look at Forza Motorsport, that game bombed in a way I couldn't imagine and it's not fair on Turn 10.
You think this game will launch on PS5 at the end of the year?
This isnt a timed exclusive.
Nor was Sea of Thieves or Hi Fi Rush. Look where we are.
Sea of thieves is 6 years old, are you willing to wait 6 years?
Hi Fi is small and niche that isnt even selling on PS5 like its Xbox release.
Zero interest in this game. NT makes dull playing games
Thats not the point being made.
The only big AAA that is Hitting PS5 is a 6 year old Gaas X1 game.
Stellar Blade is in a couple weeks bro
Im refereing to Xbox 1st party.
Remember when Xbox promised 4k 120FPS games and Xbox fans bought into it and others like me doubted it. Now Xbox fans are defending 30FPS as they claim hardware can't do any better. Fun times.
The Xbox fan base always, ALWAYS move the goal posts.
Xbox offers the most amount of games with 120FPS option of any current console on the market with over 90 games. The next closest is the ps5 with over 30 games.
Sony never promised 120 FPS. MS did
That's simply not true
Sony literally shows 8k on the Box
For video not games
Doesn't say for video. Just big old 8k top right hand corner on the box.
You want to have ago at MS for 120fps which they actually have same games
Utilising...
It says it requires compatible software and display. They would be sued for false advertising on the box. Plus there is fine print. Yes it is misleading. You can mislead but not fully false advertise.
Bro lol, no you cant. You cant call 120fps false advertising while they do offer 120fps games, than go and completely defend Sonys 8k on the box using "Its in the fine print" rofl.
Maybe Xbox Tax does exist.
How much does Phil pay you? I never said 120 is false advertising. Saying 8k on the box is not false advertising as it's referring to video playback in it's fine print legal terms. You insinuated 8k is false advertising on the box. Never even heard of an Xbox tax.
All I ever did was doubt 4k 120 should be the norm as suggested before the gen started. Just like how 1080 60 wasn't the norm last gen or when Sony with PS3 promised the norm would be 1080P.
Sony literally puts 8k on the front of the box to influence people. Notice XSX doesn't show 8k on its box yet its a more powerful console.. go figure.
Video playback is an excuse. Its a games console that 99.99% of games dont come close to 8k.
Its to trick customers into thinking "Wow PS5 says 8k on the box, its must be more powerful than the Xbox, mum i want the PS5."
Its misleading marketing and worse than Xbox promising 120fps, because Xbox actually has content that renders 1120fps. Halo Infinite is a good example on this.
Everybody promised 4k 120FPS. Heck the Play Station 5 was even talking about 8k... I mean wake up, this is not something new. And no "put a brand here" fans are claiming anything different than others...
"Xbox" fans 'defending" the 30FPS by... Saying that the console is not powerful enough is a "defense"? This is simply a fact, not a defense or anything; this is the EXACT reason why the game cannot achieve 60FPS, end of story... Seriously people need to get out of this stupid console war and stop thinking that everything being said is to defend or protect whatever console or brand people are obsessed with...
Aaron greenberg literally said on twitter 60fps is the minimum for XBS consoles. Sony never promised it like Xbox did, they just put it on the box of the PS5 which is very different
What are blabbering about… can you link where Microsoft said officially that all games on Xbox would be running at minimum of 60FPS? Instead of just coming up with stuff out of your ass to prove a imaginary point that for some reason need to show that Xbox is different for that matter than Play Station with any expectation they both set at the beginning of the generation ? I know that you have an agenda and you are in the console war thingy but stop pretending like this is an ‘Xbox’ thing….
I ‘assume’ you have a Play Station 5 and you probably are even keeping the cardboard box next to the picture of your family (or you even framed it). Now looks behind that box (I have mine in front of me…) and look at that ‘8k’ gaming. And come back and tell me that does not imply that people buying a PlayStation 5 should not except several games in 8k?
You realize that for some magical reason Play Station enthusiast actually come back with that BS about Xbox running all games at 60FPS only and nobody owning or being of fan of Xbox excpect anything like that or believe that Microsoft ‘promised’ anything close to that? So other than sounding completely biased when you are posting stuff like that what are you trying to achieve? Only play station fans seems to see those false ‘promise’ from Microsoft. Either you live in a very different reality or for some reason having you made up promises is quite convenient for your narrative to work out.
I mean I’m done arguing with you about stuff that only exist in your head to ‘prove’ that you made the right choice with your plastic box.
I assume you mean the 2020 '60fps will be the standard output' tweet.
But he also responded to that 5 days later saying "developers always have flexibility".
So they didn't mandate 60 fps.
Halo Infinite says hi.
Phil Spencer himself says that 60 fps add to the cinematic effect……but these clowns are still using the 30 fps “cinematic” excuse.
What a joke. Another game I won’t be touching for months till it’s 60 fps.
PC gamers will have their say on that 60fps bit. :)
That said, "Walking Simulator" is such a reductive term. This is a cinematic, story-driven experience and looks as good as it does because Ninja Theory specializes in this sort of thing. Best looking game out there? Well, it certainly is up there with the best of the best from what they've shown so far. Especially Senua, who will likely be the best looking character out there. Alan Wake 2 leads that charge for me, so it has some big shoes to fill, but I expect it to.












