Firewatch's Poor PS4 Frame Rate: Campo Santo Is Working on a Fix

Reviews for the heavily anticipated first-person exploration adventure game Firewatch are finally out and for most part they've been favourable. But there has been a bone of contention for most critics on the eve of its launch. The game's technical performance, particularly on the PS4 isn't everything it should be what with a choppy and inconsistent frame rate.

It's something the developers of Campo Santo are aware of and are looking to fix at the earliest.

"FWIW [For What It's Worth], we're currently talking to both Sony and Unity and we're all working hard to to optimise performance of Firewatch on PS4," posted a developer from the studio on popular gaming forum NeoGAF. The comment explained the complexity involved in solving such a conundrum. Namely because it involves not just Sony, but engine maker Unity (as the game runs on Unity) as well.

(Also see: Firewatch Review)

"It's tricky, because it really requires all three partners working together to improve -- it's not something we can tackle on our own, unlike a game bug -- but we'll definitely continue to patch all platforms with every content and performance fix we can over time! To summarise: we're on it," the post continues.

While it's heartening to see such a prompt response for a game that not readily available for the general public, it was also met with derision. Some claim it won't be fixed.

"It's a Unity game. It won't and cannot be fixed. I'm positive of that. Not a single console Unity game with launch performance issues has been fixed with a patch," said forumgoer dark10x.

The skepticism is not without merit. Past titles powered by Unity on console such as Grow Home, Galak-Z, Gone Home, Oddworld New n' Tasty, and Never Alone to name a few suffered from erratic performance. Some of these were equally poor on PC too. But considering that Firewatch is undoubtedly one of the highest profile releases of the year, we might just see all three parties coming together to make things right.

However this should not deter you from playing the game. In our review we felt that Firewatch's story is well worth experiencing despite any technical niggles that might come in your way.