At Xbox One's launch the resolution divide between it and the PS4 was wide.
Some launch PS4 games had double the resolution of the Xbox One counterparts. Those early figures had a very big impact on how the two consoles were viewed from the perspective of hardware superiority, and as the surveys suggest, this fact led directly to PS4 sales.
But Microsoft promised that things would improve...and they delivered. Destiny, Diablo 3, Tomb Raider DE, GTA 5 and many other games achieved 1080p resolution parity with PS4. The Xbox faithful were extatic and Playstation fanboys were disillusioned...
Is it true? Is the Xbox One truly on par with PS4?
Speaking strictly from a resolution(not framerate) point of view, one has to consider what type of devices video game consoles are. Consoles are gaming devices aimed at the general public, intending to be played on television sets.
99% of all HDTVs are either 720p or 1080p.
So in theory, there is simply no need to waste hardware resources on resolutions above 1080p when developing console games.
What does this fact suggest?
It suggests that in console development, even though the console was able to output resolutions above 1080p, the developers would simply cap it off and use the extra gpu resources for other things. It would also suggest that if the PS4 hardware is continually being improved, resolution would not necessarily be a reliable indicator of this improvement since the PS4 reached the resolution cap so early in it's lifespan.
The Xbox One on the other hand had not(generally) reached this resolution cap in its launch period. Therefore, one could more reliably use resolution to analyse the hardware improvements on Microsoft's console.
Based on these facts, I do not believe that Xbox One games achieving 1080p resolution indicates hardware parity. This is because we will never know if the PS4 can output resolutions higher than 1080p.
Agree or disagree? Speak your mind.
