Gotham Knights Lacks A Performance Mode And Players Aren't Happy

"Gotham Knights" has been fighting an uphill battle in the leadup to its release. While the game promises a return to the action-packed styling of the beloved "Batman: Arkham" series, certain "Gotham Knights" announcements have had fans seeing red. For instance, Warner Bros.' cancellation of the game's versions for last-generation consoles certainly put some fans off. Early hands-on previews have been mixed as well, with some outlets like Eurogamer noting the weightlessness of the combat system. Unfortunately, yet another piece of news regarding the game has now disappointed fans. According to the game's executive producer, "Gotham Knights" runs at a locked 30 frames-per-second on console — with no performance mode option.

While 30 frames is generally acceptable and playable for most titles, players usually point to 60 frames as being the sweet spot where gameplay feels most fluid. Many AAA titles on the PlayStation 5 and the Xbox Series consoles employ performance and fidelity modes, allowing the player to choose whether to prioritize 60 FPS gameplay or 30 FPS gameplay with better graphics. "Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered," a similarly-styled superhero outing to "Gotham Knights," has both these modes, as well as a third mode that falls in the middle at 45 FPS. As such, players are confused as to why "Gotham Knights" lacks any performance options at all.

In a post on the official "Gotham Knights" Discord server (shared by @Wario64), executive producer Fleur Marty explained the reason for the game's console frame rate. Most importantly, "Gotham Knights" emphasizes co-op progression and maintaining an untethered multiplayer connection apparently necessitated a 30 FPS console cap.

Despite the explanation, the announcement proved a dealbreaker for many would-be players. "My interest wasn't very high for this one, but with it only being 30 fps, it will be a hard pass," @edge_h8 tweeted. "I just can't do 30 fps anymore."

While the company's official explanation blames the game's design complexity, one developer at Rocksteady suggested that hardware itself may actually be the problem (via @TWTHEREDDRAGON). They speculated that making the game run on Xbox Series S meant that the developers were held back by optimizing the title for a weaker system. However, this possibility was also met with pushback. "I'd be more understanding if this was some truly next-gen looking game but it looks like a cross-gen game and there is no excuse I'd believe for why they couldn't have a 60fps mode on the Series X and PS5," u/Johnhancock1777 commented on a Reddit thread.

"Gotham Knights" could receive a patch in the future to optimize game performance across the board, but no plans have been announced. For now, the only option for a higher frame rate is the PC version, which can run at 60 frames provided that users meet the minimum specs.