Video Games

Fallout 4 Xbox Series X|S quality mode blocked by bug

Not quite working as intended

Marco Wutz

Bethesda / Microsoft

The Fallout 4 next-gen update is a bit of a mess on PC and seemingly isn’t winning any love on Xbox Series X|S either – due to a bug included with the update, players are unable to select the quality mode on their console and are stuck with performance mode instead.

Perhaps that wording is a bit imprecise – players can choose quality mode in Fallout 4, it simply doesn’t have an effect. It seems like the mode just isn’t activating properly, so players won’t see any improvement in the game’s visual details. On the plus side, you’ll always have those smooth 60 frames per second.

“Disabling the performance mode seemingly does nothing. It stays at 60fps and the res bound stays the same,” Digital Foundry’s Thomas Morgan explained.

Fallout 4 on PS5 doesn’t have that issue with quality and performance mode both working as the developers intended. However, the PlayStation update has brought its own issues for users.

Those who’ve picked up Fallout 4 as a free PS Plus offering in the past are unable to claim the next-gen update for free at the moment, only getting an option to pay for it. Bethesda has already addressed this problem, stating that this was not intended – the next-gen upgrade will be free for PS Plus Extra members who’ve claimed Fallout 4 through the service. It’ll just take some time to get the problem resolved, so those affected must remain patient for the moment.

Fallout 4 and its franchise brethren are currently benefiting from a significant upswing in players thanks to the success of the Fallout Prime Video series. Bethesda timed the next-gen upgrade to fall into this period and give the game an additional boost, but it looks like the various issues on every platform are throwing a spanner in the works.

Perhaps it’s worth playing Fallout 76 in the meantime?

Published
Marco Wutz

MARCO WUTZ

Marco Wutz is a writer from Parkstetten, Germany. He has a degree in Ancient History and a particular love for real-time and turn-based strategy games like StarCraft, Age of Empires, Total War, Age of Wonders, Crusader Kings, and Civilization as well as a soft spot for Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail. He began covering StarCraft 2 as a writer in 2011 for the largest German community around the game and hosted a live tournament on a stage at gamescom 2014 before he went on to work for Bonjwa, one of the country's biggest Twitch channels. He branched out to write in English in 2015 by joining tl.net, the global center of the StarCraft scene run by Team Liquid, which was nominated as the Best Coverage Website of the Year at the Esports Industry Awards in 2017. He worked as a translator on The Crusader Stands Watch, a biography in memory of Dennis "INTERNETHULK" Hawelka, and provided live coverage of many StarCraft 2 events on the social channels of tl.net as well as DreamHack, the world's largest gaming festival. From there, he transitioned into writing about the games industry in general after his graduation, joining GLHF, a content agency specializing in video games coverage for media partners across the globe, in 2021. He has also written for NGL.ONE, kicker, ComputerBild, USA Today's ForTheWin, The Sun, Men's Journal, and Parade. Email: marco.wutz@glhf.gg