Microsoft’s Xbox One and Sony’s PlayStation 4 have recently seen out their first year in the highly competitive video gaming market.
Over the first year both next-gen consoles have not only had to fight off competition from each other but also from Nintendo, various aggressive smartphone and tablet gaming marketing campaigns, gaming distributors such as Steam and the ever present PC gamer all vying for custom.
These battles are something Microsoft and Sony have been well accustomed to over the years but recently the debate shifted from the traditional realm of ‘what exclusive games’ each of the respective platforms can bring to the table to the rather more complicated, convoluted debate about how much ‘resolution and frame-rates’ each system can produce.
The great debate
This next-gen console ‘resolution and frame-rate’ debate originally picked up speed when it was announced that the blockbuster game ‘Call of Duty Ghosts’ was shown to run at 1080p on the PlayStation 4 and only 720p on the Xbox One.
This caused outrage amongst Microsoft’s loyal gaming community with many Xbox gamers jumping ship for Sony’s seemingly more powerful console.
Xbox gamers questioned ‘Call of Duty’s Ghost developer’s’ decision on the reduction of resolution and the answer they got further fuelled their anger.
The game designers claimed that for the game to be playable it must hit 60 frames-per-second which is the gold standard for all ‘Call of Duty’ games. The Xbox One couldn’t deliver 60 frames-per-second without having to reduce the resolution of the graphics considerably as the final product has shown. Whereas the PlayStation 4 delivered both on the highest resolution and the coveted 60-frames-per-second without compromises, the Xbox had to make sacrifices in order to run smoothly.
Aggressive marketing
Nevertheless, many industry analysts blame aggressive game marketing with fanning the flames of this debate from something that didn’t really matter into something which has and will be decisive in the consumers buying decision.
Seasoned gamers and commentators have gone to considerable lengths to dampen the argument by stating that it is extremely difficult to actually notice the visual difference in quality in most cases and that it’s how the game plays rather than its looks that will determine whether or not a game is ultimately successful.
In terms of the consoles themselves industry analysts back-up the claim that as long as the platform produces exciting and engaging games resolution won’t and shouldn’t matter.
Game developers are still early on in the understanding of each of the platforms gaming nuances and capabilities. Therefore, it will be more reasonable to better judge the consoles on performance in a couple of years.
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