Sonic Frontiers may offer players on PlayStation 5 the option of either 4K resolution or 60FPS, but not both, according to reports out of Tokyo Game Show. The next major game release in the Sonic franchise has a lot of expectations behind it. Sonic Frontiers will be released across all major gaming platforms including Nintendo Switch, as well as last-gen and next-gen consoles. That kind of platform reach may make Sega make some hard decisions, and players will have decisions to make in turn.
The Tokyo Game Show convention is now over, but some information about Sonic Frontiers is now trickling out of the event that was previously unknown. One attendee shared that he asked a Sega representative about the game's platforms, specifically regarding supported resolution and frame rate. Since it's unclear if the Sega representative was operating in an official capacity, this information isn't certain. Nevertheless, it's interesting to consider.
PlayStation 5 is the most interesting platform that Twitter user tadanohi asked about. According to the information tadanohi provided, the PS5 version of Sonic Frontiers will offer two different graphics modes. The first features 4K resolution, but only 30FPS. The second offers 60FPS, but is limited to just 1080p resolution. This is similar to many of the early cross-gen games released on PlayStation 5, with more recent games having better optimization.
The PlayStation 5 isn't the only platform that was asked about, however. They also asked about the PlayStation 4, which is said to be limited to 1080p resolution and 30FPS, as well as the Nintendo Switch, which will have 720p and 30FPS. No information about the Xbox versions of Sonic Frontiers was provided, though they'll probably be equal to their generational counterpart -- PS4 or PS5.
What the information might convey is that it's not easy for Sonic Frontiers to offer up 60FPS. That's understandable since Sonic Frontiers is an open-world game. Optimizing an open-world game both for resolution and frame rate is no simple matter, especially when it also has to be optimized for six different platforms.
On one hand, Sonic games are all about speed and responsiveness. 60FPS makes a Sonic game that much better. On the other hand, optimizing a major game release across six platforms is incredibly difficult. There's always a chance that this information is incorrect and Sega will correct it soon, but Sonic fans looking forward to Sonic Frontiers may want to start evaluating whether they want 4K resolution or a smooth frame rate for going fast.
Sonic Frontiers releases November 8 on PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
