Borkachev on 23 August 2007
Name some 360 games that do true 1080p, not upscaled.
Virtua Tennis 3 does. So does Pirates of the Caribbean, I believe.
What I disagree with in this debate is how everyone is treating the gamer crowd as though it's the same as the general public. Yes, only a fraction of the overall population owns an HDTV (28% as of the beginning of the year; even conservatively speaking, it's at least 1/3 now), but the overall population includes all the hippies and technophobes and your gramma in the nursing home. The people who buy gaming consoles are at the leading edge of technologies like HDTV, and the percentage of HD owners among them is going to be much higher -- thus making HD extremely important to this generation. (It's true that Wii has appealed to a broader audience, but I'm positive the HDTV ownership rate among Wii players is still much higher than the general pop.)
Even if you could argue that HD isn't important right at this moment (and I still think you'd be wrong), you can't deny that it will be absolutely essential in 4-5 years when this generation is at its peak. For Sony or Microsoft to ignore it would have been a critical mistake. (I also think it was a mistake for Nintendo to ignore it, but they've obviously got other draws to fall back on).
Now, as for whether Sony and Microsoft relied too heavily on the hardcore gamer crowd in general this generation? I think that's undeniable. The sales figures prove that for us every week. But there were other ways that could have been fixed than by cutting HD support, one of the main appeals of their consoles.
