007 First Light confirms 60 FPS on Xbox Series X, but Series S will have a significant cut

This is how 007 First Light works on Xbox: 60 FPS on Series X and total visual bet on Series S.

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Digital Foundry has published one of its most comprehensive technical analyses of 007 First Light, the new James Bond game developed by IO Interactive, and among all the revealed details, one stands out above the rest on Xbox: Xbox Series S will run at 30 FPS, while Xbox Series X will feature a 60 FPS mode.

The information comes directly from IO Interactive’s technical team during an extensive interview focused on the Glacier engine and the technologies used in the game. According to the studio, the decision is not solely due to brute power, but also to the visual philosophy they want to maintain across platforms.

Xbox Series S prioritizes visual quality over 60 FPS

As explained by Alex Mueller, IO Interactive’s principal rendering engineer, to Digital Foundry, the studio decided to maintain on Xbox Series S almost all the advanced visual systems present on Series X, even if it means limiting performance to 30 FPS.

The team’s idea was to avoid removing important features like advanced lighting, volumetric effects, or atmospheric systems just to try to reach 60 FPS on the less powerful Xbox console. Therefore, Xbox Series S will maintain a very similar visual experience, albeit with a lower framerate.

Xbox Series X gives it its all in 007 First Light

In contrast, Xbox Series X will offer a 60 FPS mode. To achieve this, IO Interactive explains that the Glacier engine uses a very aggressive combination of GPU optimization, async compute, and advanced task distribution between CPU and GPU. They have also completely modernized parts of the engine to better manage lighting, physics, AI, and animations in parallel.

• Another aspect highlighted by Digital Foundry is the new volumetric system called Smolder, capable of generating more complex smoke, fog, and dynamic lighting during shootouts and action scenes. All this is combined with a proprietary global illumination system using software-based ray tracing, designed to work on all platforms without relying exclusively on dedicated RT hardware.

The result, according to initial technical impressions, is one of the most ambitious projects IO Interactive has developed to date within the Glacier engine, especially on Xbox Series X, where the goal of 60 FPS seems to have been one of the top priorities during development.