We’re nearly one year into the Xbox One’s lifespan, and major exclusive titles are still being released at sub-1080p resolutions. Despite the fact that some cross-generation games like Destiny and Diablo III can run at full 1080p on Microsoft’s latest console, many big-name Xbox One titles still can’t hit that resolution without significantly compromising another aspect of the game. Even with the recent 10% GPU boost, Insomniac’s Xbox One exclusive Sunset Overdrive is only going to hit 900p (1600×900) at 30 frames per second. Frankly, this doesn’t bode well for the Xbox One’s longevity.
In an interview with our sister site IGN, Insomniac’s Ted Price makes it very clear that Sunset Overdrive‘s gameplay is pushing the Xbox One hardware to its limits, and the resolution and frame rate suffer because of that. “This is a game with a lot on the screen and we made the choice to be at [900p] because we wanted to push the level of detail, action, the size of the city,” Price said. Sadly, it seems nigh-on impossible to offer the scope and complexity of a true next-gen gameplay experience while offering 1080p visuals on the Xbox One. As it stands, you can have one or the other — not both.
Even with the 10% GPU bump, last year’s 10% CPU boost, and next year’s DirectX 12 release, titles on the Xbox One will likely struggle to hit 1080p for the rest of the console’s existence. When it comes down to it, the PS4′s GPU has one and a half times the number of compute units that the Xbox One’s GPU has, and nothing short of a hardware refresh is going to change that. At this point, if you also want the same next-gen gameplay as PS4 and PC titles, we should all expect Xbox One games to be running somewhere between 720p and 900p. 1080p seems to be the exception — not the rule.
Microsoft made a string of bad decisions early on in the Xbox One’s life, and the company is still paying the price. The Xbox team bet big on the Kinect, the television integration, and the always-online experience. As it turns out, most people weren’t interested in any of that. Sony didn’t hesitate to take advantage of Microsoft’s strategic mistakes, and the PS4 continues to dramatically outsell the Xbox One.
To Microsoft’s credit, the Xbox division has quickly pivoted in hopes of keeping pace with Sony. Unfortunately, this strict focus on gaming doesn’t play to the hardware’s strengths, and so it ends up making the Xbox One seem like little more than a weaker version of the PS4. I certainly can’t blame Microsoft’s Phil Spencer for trying to react to market demands, but the Xbox One now seems like a neutered product. It doesn’t have a unique voice anymore, and that’s a crying shame for Microsoft and consumers alike.
On the Xbox One you can have next-gen graphics or next-gen gameplay – not both