Biomutant Performance Details Stirring Up Controversy

Biomutant is due to drop in less than a week now, and it's one of the most anticipated releases of the summer. The developer-described "post-apocalyptic open world Kung-Fu fable" first showed gameplay during a trailer at 2017's Gamescom, and since then Biomutant enthusiasts have anticipated experiencing the game's unique take on combat and environment. However, recent tweets from publisher THQ Nordic have fans frustrated that the game isn't as optimized for next-gen hardware as they believe it should be.

To be clear, when Biomutant arrives on May 25 it will be only for PC, PS4, and Xbox One, not next-gen consoles. However, PS5 and Xbox Series X|S owners do have the option to play the game via backward compatibility. In many cases games released for earlier consoles can perform better on next-gen hardware, and Microsoft currently has a library of upgraded old Xbox games that benefit from the Series X|S 60fps Boost feature. But THQ Nordic's recent tweets suggest that the game won't meet certain expected resolution and frame rate standards on the PS5 or Xbox Series S, and fans are wondering why.

On the gaming forum ResetEra, gamers have compiled tweets from THQ nordic and Biomutant gameplay trailers to try and understand some of the game's apparent performance limitations. In one tweet, THQ Nordic says that Biomutant on PS5 will not run at a native 4K but will rather be an upscaled 4K from 1080p on the PS4. In another tweet, THQ Nordic explains that the game will run at 1440p/30fps on the Xbox Series S.

Much of fan frustration seems to stem from Biomutant reportedly running on the Xbox Series X at 4K/60fps but only 1080p/60fps on a non-native PS5 version due to "technical reasons." In one gameplay video for PS5, a disclaimer from THQ Nordic at 0:06 says that the current build of the game does not allow for native 4K on the PS5 and the function has been "deactivated due to stability - and performance - related reasons." Other gamers are curious as to why Biomutant on Xbox Series S has an increased resolution but still runs at 30fps.

This has gamers speculating on what could be the cause the performance limitations. After all, most gamers with next-gen hardware capable of achieving 4K/60fps want that option in newly released games. While it's pretty early on in the discussion, some gamers are blaming developer Experiment 101 for the technical issues while others are saying Biomutant's underwhelming PS5 performance is due to Sony's limited backward compatibility implementations.

Overall, it seems Xbox Series X owners have the biggest incentive to pre-order/buy Biomutant at launch. This may cause PS5 or Series S console owners to hold off on purchasing the game until a native version with next-gen upgrades is released sometime in the future. Whether this schism is indicated in game sales upon Biomutant's release will be interesting to find out.

Biomutant is fast approaching its release date after years of waiting, but classes are now set, and players already know what they do. There are currently six classes in the game, with the Mercenary class exclusive to Biomutant pre-orders, and still a mystery in terms of its actual abilities. Character creation in Biomutant is a reasonably deep process, and it doesn't involve simply picking a class to play, but also a breed, mutations, and other cosmetic changes.