SomePlayStation 5players have reported that their consoles appear to be abruptly overheating, and they think they know why: an unlocked FPS onDeath Stranding 2’s map screen could be putting undue strain on the console.Death Stranding 2released last weekto excellent reviewsand, as is par for the course with Hideo Kojima games, no end of fan discussion. But while most fans were busy sharing their strategies for ideal ladder placement ordiscussing their favorite Easter eggs, others found themselves dealing with a more serious problem.
A post to theDeath Strandingsubreddit by usermudman2018claims that,as soon as this particular player pauses the game and opens the map screen, their PS5’s fan “goes into overdrive,“running much more intensely and loudly than usual. Shortly thereafter, they report seeing an overheating warning pop up on their screen - something they say doesn’t ordinarily happen, even after long sessions with graphically-demanding games. This isn’t just one player’s problem though - the comments are full of others claiming the exact same thing has happened to them, which suggests something bigger is at play here.
Death Stranding 2’s Map Menu May Be Causing PS5s To Overheat
Why DS2’s Map Seems To Be So Demanding
Many other users in the comments report similar issues, includingYACAA94, who attached a video of their console’s fan whirring loudly after briefly openingDS2’s map screen. Bothbase PS5s and Prosseem to be affected by the issue, which doesn’t seem to be determined by console cleanliness, either; some players report similar overheating on their brand-new consoles, although dust buildup certainly won’t help the issue.
Another commenter,Borg34572, offers a potential explanation:it may be becauseDeath Stranding 2’s map runs at an unlimited frame rate, which could force the console to render quite literally hundreds of frames per second, quickly overloading its GPU and creating a risk of overheating. Most console games today have limited frame rates to prevent exactly this from happening: titles are usually limited to 60 or 120 FPS, which, for most games, is well within the PS5’s capabilities.
Death Strandingappears to be no exception to this rule -the unlocked frame rate on the map screen is most likely a bug. The game itself has the usual Performance vs. Quality modes, and overheating only takes place on the map screen. If it was intended to have an unlocked frame rate throughout, it would be a problem long before the player opened the map.
Unfortunately,the reported overheating doesn’t seem to have been fixed by a recentDeath Stranding 2patch, which went out over the weekend. That said, there’s likely a fix upcoming in the near future. For now, players experiencing the issue should ensure their consoles are placed in well-ventilated areas, and remove the console’s outer shell to clean out any dust buildup - although this may not solve the issue.
Our Take: The Unlocked Frame Rate Theory Makes Sense
DS2’s Map Is Incredibly Detailed
Such sudden overheating is a little unexpected, but looking at everything we know aboutDeath Stranding 2, it may not be terribly surprising.DS2is a visually impressive game, with some ofthe most realistic graphics I’ve ever seen- but somehow, it runs butter-smooth even on my base PS5.
By nature, its map is also incredibly detailed - it has to be, since the main mechanic of the game is traversal over rough terrain. Its dense, topographical rendering of the entire massive map is a sight to behold, and a big help when it comes to planning out routes. For such a thing to run at an unlocked frame rate would almost certainly send any console into overdrive. That said, here’s hoping for a definitive fix for this sudden overheating soon, before it does serious damage to anyone’sPlayStation 5.
