Biomutant only runs at 1080p on PS5 ‘due to technical issues’

THQ Nordic says it’s deactivated native 4K support for Biomutant on PlayStation 5 “due to technical reasons”.

Instead, the game will run at 1080p upscaled to 4K when played on PlayStation 5. In comparison the Xbox One version of the game will run at 4K / 60fps “with dynamic resolution” on Series X, and Series S will run at 1440p / 30fps.

A PS5 gameplay video published this week states that the option for native 4K on PlayStation 5 “has been deactivated due to stability- and performance-related reasons.”

In a further statement published on Twitter, THQ Nordic said: “Due to technical reasons, we deactivated native 4k on PS5 for the release version of the game.”

It added: “Neither are native current gen versions, but the PS4/XB1 version already performs better on current gen due to the more powerful hardware. Native version for current gen are coming, but we can’t share any more details yet.”

Biomutant is an action role-playing game developed by Swedish developer Experiment 101, set for release on May 25 for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.

This is the latest example of a last-gen multiplatform game receiving better next-gen optimisation on Xbox Series X than on PS5, possibly due to restrictions around how Sony’s console handles backwards compatibility updates.

Enabling next-gen performance features such as 120fps reportedly requires a full native port on PS5, while Microsoft allows such features to be added via a backwards compatibility patch.

Since both next-gen consoles launched, a number of games including Cyberpunk 2077, Star Wars: Squadrons, Call of Duty: Warzone and Rocket League have received performance updates for those playing on Xbox Series X, but not PS5.

Mass Effect: Legendary Edition also supports 120fps on Xbox Series X, but not on PlayStation 5.

In January, EA also released a next-gen optimisation update for Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. Although this update improved the PS5 version too, its improvements were locked to 1440p postprocessing at 60fps. The Xbox Series X version, meanwhile, gave players the choice of two modes, performance (60fps and dynamic resolution up to 1440p) or normal (4K postprocessing).