Assassin's Creed Shadows will offer 30, 40, and 60FPS modes on Xbox Series X and PS5

Ubisoft is almost ready to ship Assassin's Creed Shadows to fans later this month, and a major piece of information that console players had been waiting for was finally revealed today. Following the PC system requirements that were announced in January, the console performance targets are now finally here.

On the Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5, players will find three performance modes to select when jumping into the Japan-set action RPG: Performance (60FPS), Fidelity (30FPS), and Balanced (40FPS). All modes will run at an upscaled 4K image quality. Keep in mind also that to use the Balanced mode, you do need a high refresh rate display.

Here are the details Ubisoft shared today on each mode and what elements they selectively turn off and on to achieve the target frame rates:

• The performance mode will target 60 FPS, reducing the rendering resolution and adjusting graphical settings to reach a consistent 60 FPS. On both PS5 and Xbox Series X, this mode relies on our tried and tested baked global illumination technology.
  • Furthermore, the increased raytracing capabilities of the PS5 Pro allow us to introduce our new raytraced global illumination technology at 60 FPS.
• The quality mode will target 30 FPS, leading to a higher resolution as well as boosting several rendering systems. The pre-upscaling resolution is only one area where we leverage the increased GPU budget. Our raytraced global illumination technology is one key element that also distinguishes this mode, as well as improvements on draw distances, shadows, in-game hair quality, etc...
  • Again, the PS5 Pro benefits from the more powerful GPU and raytracing capabilities by being the only mode on console that is offering raytraced reflections.
• The balanced mode, which does require a High Refresh Rate (120 Hz) compatible display, allows a 40 FPS target which combines both previous modes into one. The balanced mode basically uses the same configuration as the fidelity mode but the upscaler target's FPS is instead 40 FPS. In practice, this leads to a minor reduction in rendering resolution compared to the quality mode, but with all the other rendering system's configuration untouched.

The latest details about console specifications arrive just as Ubisoft shared 20 minutes of new gameplay from the upcoming RPG. Seen below, it shows off the different combat and stealth approaches that players can take while playing as Naoe and Yasuke.

Assassin's Creed Shadows is slated to release on March 20 across PC (Steam, Ubisoft Connect, Epic Games Store), Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, Apple Silicon Macs, and Amazon Luna.