The Falconeer runs at 4K and 60fps on Xbox Series X, 1800p and 60fps on Xbox Series S

The Falconeer
The Falconeer (Image credit: Tomas Sala)

What you need to know

  • The Falconeer is a unique dogfighting game coming to Xbox Series X and S, Xbox One, and PC devices.
  • Tomas Sala, the developer behind the game, has shared information on what it was like creating the game.
  • He also shared the performance targets for the Falconeer on several platforms, and it's pretty impressive.
  • The Falconeer will run at 4K and 60fps on the Xbox Series X, and load in only 13 seconds.

One of the more interesting launch titles for the Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S is the Falconeer, a unique dogfighting indie game developed by one person, Tomas Sala. The Falconeer combines gorgeous visual effects and lighting with addictive gameplay (um, you control a giant bird, what's not to like?) to end up with an enticing gaming experience that a lot of people are bound to love. Today, Tomas Sala took to Twitter to share what kind of performance targets we can expect for the Falconeer across platforms, and the numbers are fairly impressive.

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To quickly break things down, the Xbox Series X and S will both have a Native mode, and a Performance mode, with Native prioritizing graphics over speed, and Performance vice versa. The Xbox Series X will hit a consistent 4K resolution at 60fps, exactly what Microsoft promised, with Performance mode lowering the resolution to 1800p but doubling the frame rate to 120fps. On the other hand, the Xbox Series S will hit 1800p at 60fps in Native mode, and 1080p at 120fps in Performance mode. Both next-gen consoles will utilize their lightning fast SSD's to load in only 13 seconds.

Contrasting with the powerful next-gen consoles, the Xbox One X will hit 1800p at 60fps, while the Xbox One S will hit 1080 at 60fps, with no mention of any Performance mode (the older Xbox One generation consoles don't support anything higher than 60fps). Load times for the older generation come in at 42 seconds, much longer than the 13 seconds allowed by Xbox Series X and S.

Judging by this, the Xbox One X matches the Xbox Series S, despite the Xbox Series S supposedly being less powerful, but the Series S will still benefit from much faster load times, and other next-gen features, possibly including additional visual effects and improvements that aren't possible on the older consoles.

In a companion blog post, Tomas Sala raved about the power of the Xbox Series X and S, saying that the Xbox Series X hits 4K at 60fps in full "PC mode," meaning it supports "all the anti-aliasing, all those fancy effects" from PC's that often aren't present in console gaming. He also mentions that players will have a very similar experience between Xbox Series X and S.

If you're interested in the Falconeer, be sure to take a look at our Falconeer exclusive to learn more about the game, and watch the video above. The Falconeer is an Xbox Series X and S launch title, so it arrives on November 10. The game is also coming to Xbox One and PC too, so no one will be left out in the Xbox family of gaming devices. Take flight with the Falconeer.

Xbox Series X/S

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Zachary Boddy
Staff Writer

Zachary Boddy (They / Them) is a Staff Writer for Windows Central, primarily focused on covering the latest news in tech and gaming, the best Xbox and PC games, and the most interesting Windows and Xbox hardware. They have been gaming and writing for most of their life starting with the original Xbox, and started out as a freelancer for Windows Central and its sister sites in 2019. Now a full-fledged Staff Writer, Zachary has expanded from only writing about all things Minecraft to covering practically everything on which Windows Central is an expert, especially when it comes to Microsoft. You can find Zachary on Twitter @BoddyZachary.