Why The Xbox One 720p Issue Is Being Blown Out Of Proportion

Game Tangents commentary which examines the ongoing issue surrounding the Xbox One's 720p resolution controversy. (Xbox One, opinion)

[decrypt]

It isnt really. Its almost 2014, by next year midrange PC GPUs will be doing 4k graphics. MS console still stuck at 720p, thats embarrassing.

Its not surprising at all though. Xbone is about 2.5x as powerful as the Xbox 360, which really isnt a big jump coming after 8 years.

[bicfitness]

The issue is compounded by the fact that its $500 (and then some when including Live and games) + tax. So around a $700 investment for the average person. You can get a decent mid-range laptop or PC for that price that will play everything in 1080p and more than a handful of Steam games for that price.

At least with Sony's box the hardware is worth the asking price (yes, you can still build better PCs, but not for $400) and there are F2P options.

[ChozenWoan]

Add to that the fact that for 8 years most of the media nit picked about 5 FPS drops and any screen tearing, but now something as big as 2x resolution is suddenly a non issue.
o.0

[VENOMACR1227]

So, according to your math:

X1
-System $500
-2 games $120
-Live $45
Total = with tax, roughly $700

PS4
-System $400
-2 games $120
-PS+ $45
Total = with tax, roughly $600

You price the X1 at $700 but neglect to mention PS4 will be roughly $600 as well. Your acting like the X1 will cost $700 but the PS4 is only $400. You could get a decent mid range PC for that price of a loaded PS4 also. To you, Sony's hardware is worth the price. To some, the X1 is worth the price. Yes the hardware of PS4 is more powerful, but the X1 does a few things the PS4 cannot. Each system has it's strengths. I don't know about you, but I've seen the 720 Battlefield and 1080 PS4 and it's not a mind blowing difference. Not to mention Forza 5 is 1080. I'd rather have a game in 720 that doesnt have frame rate issues and plays great then one thats 1080 and struggles. But that's just me.

[Drewidian]

@Venomacr1227 You forgot to add on the $60 for the PS Eye if you want a fair comparison even though the PS Eye will never match the Kinect in terms of capabilities. So it would really be a $40 difference.

[tigertom53]

yes dont forget the PS4 Stand because it fall over very easy with out it 20 bucks

[nasnas76]

It's not the 1st console to launch at $500.

[kreate]

Im not sure about the ps4, but ps3 has tons of games to play already that is free, which cost $200.

Xbox doesnt.

If this trend continues into next gen,
Than it is a$700 console vs $400.

When hd was just rolling out, all the major retailers like best buy and circuit city had tvs side by side showing u the difference between 720 and 1080.

With ps3/xbox, ppl condemend the ps3 becuz more games said 1080 on the box of 360 games than ps3.

Now that next gen xbox is 720, suddenly ppl dont care and their eye resolution suddenly caps out at 720.

Talk about fanboy convenience.

[chuckyj1]

so is the PS4 3 times more powerful than the Xbox 360? All developers claim that the Xbox One and PS4 are very close in terms of power. There isn't one developer that has claimed PS4 is FAR superior that I have come across... If you have please provide a link.

Xbox one out of the gate is just harder to program for. There are Native 1080p games up and running.

And resolution isn't a very big deal, b/c Native and up-scaled 1080p the difference really isn't noticeable at all unless you playing both games side by side... And I doubt many people are doing that...

As for 4K? You're probably 5-10 years off before that is even remotely mainstream. There is no television programming even up and running that supports Native 4K. 4K TV's are priced way too high right now for most consumers.

[decrypt]

Of course in real world terms XBone and PS4 are very close in terms of power one has a GPU capable of 1.3TF other has a GPU capable of 1.8TF. The difference isnt big at all.

Both of them would get smashed pretty badly by a 200usd PC GPU as of today.

As for 4k, high end GPUs of today can easily run games in 4k, you would just need a 4k monitor. A high end GPU costs between 500-700usd. PC power doubles every 12 months. It wouldnt be out of the question to have a 300usd GPU 12 months from now run games in 4K res.

[Godmars290]

Yes. Ironically enough because the issue itself is being defended as "No Big Deal" with some even saying that 720p is *Better Than* 1080p.

[user7402931]

it should be even bigger an issue than it already is!

[osprey19]

For me resolution is 5th on importance of visuals.
1. Texturing
2. Shading
3.lighting
4. The graphics engine.
If u had the perfect resolution but all of the above were rubbish everyone would have a hissy fit.

[UnHoly_One]

Agreed.

Next to every other graphical feature, the resolution actually makes the least difference of them all.

Everyone keeps acting like 720p is so "last gen" and there is no point to even upgrading, but that's a load of crap. All of those other features are going to make everything look better, even if it was 480p.

Would I like everything to be 1080p? Sure I would, but in the grand scheme of things it is far less important than all the other upgrades we WILL be getting.

And if it turns to be really a big deal and it bothers me a lot, I'll just buy those particular games for PS4.

[osprey19]

Oh and frame rate i forgot to mention that.

[fluffydelusions]

Sorry but 720p is unacceptable today for a console JUST launching and will have to last between 5-10 years.

[GarrusVakarian]

I agree. 900p,1080p,30fps and 60fps are all fine for me but i just won't accept 720p for next gen. 720p is last gens resolution and it should stay there, there is no excuse for your game being 720p with next gen hardware.

[rela82me]

You act as though the X1 and the developers will not get better... It's not like it's "stuck" at 720P; there are a few LAUNCH titles having issues. It's a new system, and we all know that MS rushed things a bit, there were driver issues and more. The games will be better in the future, and they will be harder to tell the difference in multiplats. If your worried over resolution of the X1, I would worry more about having decent AAA titles to play on the PS4. Track record is good, but we just have to wait a year to get anything decent to play.

[BG11579]

Because MS announced a console that would do every game in native 1080p with 60fps at E3, and also added it was that only the Xbone was able to do this...
That's why this is happening and why it's well deserved.

[Boody-Bandit]

Looks at the calendar.
Oh yeah now I remember. It's almost 2014.

Funny how blades of grass, a frame rate or video tear or 2 meant everything the past several years and now all of a sudden it just doesn't matter.

hmmmmmm
I wonder why that is?

It matters to me when most of my displays are large panel 1080p and the console that will hit the 1080p more often than not cost $100 less than the one that is mostly hitting 720p. I'd rather the 44% more pixels that 1080p provides over 720p.

[tigertom53]

they whole point when you look at xbox one games they look next gen and that all that matters to me....

[UnHoly_One]

Well said, my friend.

Ryse is the best looking game announced for either console so far. (From a graphical standpoint only, don't tell me how crappy the gameplay looks, that isn't what we are talking about.)

Would it look better in 1080p? Certainly.

But even if they downgraded it to 600p, it would still clearly look better than anything from this current generation.

I just don't get the huge focus on resolution. Like somebody said above, it's the LEAST important graphical feature.

If you take a PS2 game and make it native 1080p without changing anything else, is it going to look as good as other PS4 games? No of course not.

So why are we putting so much weight on that one number?

[osprey19]

Exactly. U noticed that most xb1 games (especially exclusives) look better than anything else graphically speaking, on any other gaming platform, happened last gen. Xb360 was underpowered compared to ps3, yet 99/100 xb360 looked the better version. Same this time around.

[Belking]

lol...fanboys are blowing it out of proportion. Now look what's going on. PS4 reviews and its games aren't turning out to match the hype. Now we see the real reason sony kept the ps4s and some of its game out of journalist hands.I'll take 720p and smooth over 1080p crappy anyday....but then again you look at games like forza where you have 1080p and 60fps, and Ryse which looks better than anything else out there.That tells me all this talk about resolution is just hype.

[towelie1288]

Xbox one is brand new hardware PS3 games were crap when the were first coming out and now they are a lot better
Once developers get used to the hardware it wont be an issue

Fanboys.......Geeezzz... grow up
you act like this is the first time this happened

[Jeedai Infidel]

It's starting to become clear to me as I read a lot of PS fans' comments these days that it is less about the games and hardware, and more to do with getting even with the idiots that said these things about the PS3 during the first few years. Fire doesn't put out fire, folks.

[UnHoly_One]

Well Said.

Bubbles to you.

They've just declared war at this point. They will attack anything and everything that MS does.

[Jeedai Infidel]

It goes both ways, though.

[GoPanthers999]

I would love to compare the graphics at a store with working demos, but they are not to be found. All i have seen are cheap dvd video displays with mockup product. Honestly, the videos are in 480 resolution, and if anything will dissuade an unknowing person.

[KingDadXVI]

The responses here are pretty typical of this site which is loaded with fanboys. It was no issue what so ever when the PS3 was so hard to code games for that it took 5 years to be able to leverage the extra power that it had over the Xbox 360. Yet when the same issue comes up for the Xbox One it is the end of MS and Xbox One.

Logic is not used on this site. The Xbox One will take some time for developers to get used to using it but it is nowhere near as complicated as it was for the PS4 and it won't take long for the native 1080p to be hitting the Xbox One.

On top of that the 1080p version of COD Ghosts not only looks no better than the up rendered version of the Xbox One it can't even run at the 60 fps that they were shooting for.

This sounds to me like Sony made a bad mistake and pushed for COD to be 1080p to look better than MS on paper only for it to backfire with not only equal looking graphics but shitty frame rates.

And for those that are going to start talking about the article that claimed the PS4 version of COD that was reviewed was only 720p you had better read the article again as it has been edited to state that the review version is the correct on and only the retail version needs the patch.

Here is the statement from CraveOnline:

"Call of Duty: Ghosts runs natively at 1080p on the PlayStation 4. There was a configuration issue in the retail version on single player mode only. This has been addressed with a day one software update. People will be able to download the day one update when PlayStation 4 launches in their territory and play at native 1080p.

Previously it was thought that this impacted comparisons between both next-gen consoles, but the footage used by outlets has been from a build that properly represents both versions accurately.

The change will be very noticeable, so whatever you do don't skip the option to update your game if you plan on playing through the new campaign."

According to this last sentence the 720p version that is shipped with the retail version needs the patch because it looks noticeably worse which does not bode well for the PS4 if its 720p native can't compare to the Xbox's 720p native.

Here is the statement from IGN:

"Activision has confirmed that the version of Call of Duty: Ghosts made available to IGN for review (and displayed in the video embedded below) was presented at native 1080p. The issue described below and the corresponding day-one patch only affect retail copies of the game."

So once you patch your retail version on the PS4 it will look exactly like the reviews in which all but one say the Xbox One version looks as good as the PS4 and it is still going run at slower frame rates than on the Xbox One.