This is a question that has been on many gamer’s minds since the PS3 launched. Gamers have been arguing over this very topic for two years now and there is still no clear answer if the PS3 is truly more hi-def than the Xbox 360 or vice versa. However, early games seem to indicate that the Xbox 360 might have been easier to develop HD games.

“True hi-definition” became the industry buzzword during 2007, similarly to the way LittleBigPlanet became the buzzword for 2008. It became such a key topic; Microsoft even added a HDMI port to the Xbox 360 just so that they could say the console was truly hi-def.

As many of your may know games do not have to be in 1080p to be considered hi-def, but at some point the silly term “true hi-definition” was coined by Sony to push the PS3 for its HDMI and Blu-ray capabilities. Of course Microsoft who shrugged off the importance of hi-def gaming early on, later jumped on the bandwagon by shouting, “me too.”

I would say for the most part that around 98% of the multiplatform titles have the same resolution on both the PS3 and the Xbox 360. However, there are several games where the resolution doesn’t quite reach hi-def quality.

Ported Games

Here are just a few games analyzed by the graphics gurus over at Beyond3D by pixel counting. These guys were the first to break news that Halo 3 was in fact 640p and not 720p before it was verified by the developers. They were also the site that broke news that GTA IV was 640p on the PS3.

Xbox 360:

Dark Sector = 1280×720

MX vs ATV = 1280×720

Grand Theft Auto IV = 1280×720

Fracture = 1280×720

PS3:

Dark Sector = 1152×640

MX vs ATV = 1024×576

Grand Theft Auto IV = 1152×640

Fracture = 1152×648

Oddly enough it seems that there are a few games that the Xbox 360 is capable of outputting at a higher resolution than the PS3. Considering that most of these games are Xbox 360 ports, it seems likely that it is more difficult to port games over to the PS3 at the same resolution.

However, that doesn’t seem to always be the case. There are a couple of games that were not hi-def on the Xbox 360 but became hi-def once ported to the PS3, but these were rare instances.

Xbox 360:

Tomb Raider Underworld = 1024×576

Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion = 1024×600

PS3:

Tomb Raider: Underworld = 1280×720

Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion = 1280×720

For the most part, it seems that the PS3 version suffers greatly when games are ported from Xbox 360.  Considering that development is easier on the Xbox 360 than the PS3, chances are smaller studios may go this route to save cost. This will mean that if the developers do not put extra effort into porting the game over to the PS3, games will continue to suffer on that platform.

1080p Games

Despite all the hype over 1080p, there really are not that many games in that resolution. There are practically no multiplatform games that are in 1080p except a few sports titles.

However, it looks like Sony has been pushing more native 1080p  games than Microsoft.

Here is a list of PS3 games that are only 1080p on the PS3 (including exclusives): 

Wolf of the Battlefield: Commando 3 = 1920×1080

Wipeout HD = 1920×1080

Go Puzzle = 1920×1080

GT5 Prologue = 1920×1080

Lair = 800×1080/1600×1080

Ridge Racer 7 = 1920×1080

NBA07  = 1920×1080

NBA08 = 1920×1080

Blast Factor = 1920×1080

Calling All Cars  = 1920×1080

Echochrome = 1920×1080

Elefunk = 1920×1080

High Velocity Bowling = 1920×1080

Locoroco Cocoreccho = 1920×1080

Mainichi Issyo = 1440×1080

Pixel Junk Monsters/Racers/Eden = 1920×1080

Rub’a'dub = 1600×1080

Snakeball = 1280×1080

Stardust HD = 1280×1080

Sudoku = 1920×1080

Super Rub-a-Dub = 1600×1080

Tekken 5 Dark Resurrection = 1920×1080

Currently the only Xbox 360 exclusive to be pixel-counted to be native 1080p is:

Boogie Bunnies = 1920×1080

One could deduce from looking at the list, that when games are developed independently, the PS3 might be easier to develop 1080p games than the Xbox 360. However, I believe this may be because Sony’s emphasis on 1080p games might have contributed to these studios pushing the games to that resolution.

In conclusion, it seems that most multiplatform developers are not willing to push games to 1080p and there is also a slight chance that an Xbox 360 port might have a lower resolution on the PS3. If this development paradigm continues, the Xbox 360 might have a very small edge over the PS3 in hi-def gaming by default with the ports. Although, to be clear for the most part, the vast majority of the multiplatform games have the same resolution on both systems.

However, fortunately for PS3 owners many third party developers such as EA, Activision and Ubisoft have indicated that they will use the PS3 as the lead development platform (Prince of Persia, Mirror’s Edge and Dead Space to name a few). The net result of using the PS3 as the lead platform seems to be that ports to the Xbox 360 looks identical to the lead platform in resolution and quality.

So the reality is, most games will probably never be in 1080p and most multiplatform games will look identical in every way. It is really up to the first party developers to push hi-def gaming because studios like Infinity Ward and Treyarch seems to be satisfied with offering 600p games.

The Final word - Are hi-def games overrated? Yes they are.

Very interesting read. i'll have to wait on my opinion though because i wanna quote somebody.

In B4 Leo, MakingMusic, Ronster, Span, and a few others im far to lazy to remember at the moment.

Let the amusment begin!

yeah, especially when you hear HD screamed at every corner and how SD sucks, then when you get a HD console, you discover it's actually in between HD and SD for 99% of the games.

I think the bigger improvement in image quality is the connection rather than the format....

if anything it's less high def. It didn't even have the capability to output 1080p (in any way) before the tripple was released and they decided they needed to throw in a hdmi port to compete.

Actually after reading the op let me respond properly. What you are seing is what i would refere to as "developer hell" We have been over this a lot but developers has had a hard time developing on the tripple. That's resulted in such things as the lower resolution in some games. However, as you say yourself, people have started using the ps3 as the lead platform which benifits both platforms (as 360 games also ends up looking better than if it had been the lead platform for a game to be ported to the ps3)

Conclusion : we should be over all of this crap by now. :p

NBA Street Home court (demo) = 1920x1080 (4xAA)

So one could assume the other games in the NBA series were this resolution.

Also they are using those funky resolutions because of the funky scaler in the PS3 not because of some awesome powerz.

Yawn.

So only 1 full release is full HD and thats on the Xbox 360, Bullshit list. Try again next time please.

99.9%

Resolution =/= graphical quality.

VERY few games run at a native resolution of 1080p.

I realy enjoyed your post, but the last sentence seems out of place. Your thread was a resolution comparison between the 360 and the PS3 and you concluded that all hi-def games are overrated. Although the 360/PS3 games are not at the resolution and fps that I originally expected the hi-def games are much better than last generation.

Jericho runs on full HD and looks stunning.