Xbox Exec on PS3: "1080p... will be basically impossible"

[Jeremy Charette]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.joystiq.com/2006/03/22/xbox-exec-on-ps3-1080p-will-be-basically-impossible/' target='_blank'>http://www.joystiq.com/2006/03/22/xbox-exec-on-ps3-1080p-will-be-basically-impossible/</a><br /><br /></div><i>"Speaking with Kikizo Games, Xbox's Director of the Game Technology Group, Scott Henson, had his doubts about Sony's claim that PS3 games will feature 'full HD' (1080p resolution): "I think 1080p, just to address that directly, will be basically impossible. I think if you talk to any developer they will tell you that they will not have a performing game at 1080p.""</i><br /><br /> <img src="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/scotthenson_xbox3.jpg" /> <br /><br />Early insider reports from PS3 developers have essentially said the same thing. The PS3 will not require all games to be 1080p capable, nor will most developers be trying to make 1080p native games. There simply isn't enough horsepower under the hood in either the PS3 or the Xbox 360 to make that happen, and still have decent framerates and visual effects. Not gonna happen. I think what we <i>will </i>see in the PS3 is the ability to take a 1080i signal and upconvert it to 1080p. The bigger question is "why"? If you have a 1080p TV, it can do that 1080i to 1080p upconversion for you, so why do the conversion in the console? I think Sony was grasping at straws when they published the early specs for the system, and wanted an advantage over Microsoft. Touting 1080p was an easy way to give themselves that extra little edge, but I think it's going to backfire when they can't deliver the goods.

[Felix Torres]

Touting 1080p was an easy way to give themselves that extra little edge, but I think it's going to backfire when they can't deliver the goods.

1- Sony has a reputation to uphold. :lol:
They have a well-deserved reputation for over-promising and under-delivering that pre-dates the PS2. Except for the fanboys, nobody actualy expects (meaningful) dual-screen 1080p games from *anything* this decade, much less the PS3.

2- I expect they *will* in fact deliver at least one in-house-developed game that can do single- or even dual-screen 1080p; I'm thinking a card game, possibly poker, or chess. Maybe an old-style adventure game, like Syberia (which runs in 1080 on the original XBOX) or Dragon's Lair (Ditto).

3- XBOX360 is already delivering 1080-res games and video; surprisingly, 18 of the first 69 360 games announced support 1080. Oblivion renders runs smoothly and perfectly at 1080.

4- That said; way too much is being made of the (minimal) differential between 1080i and 1080p in non-game applications. Games, in fact, is the one area where the difference between *rendering* 1080p/60 vs 1080i/60 is going to be noticeable. As pointed out, *displaying* non-game (and non-PC) content in 1080i vs 1080p is a matter of nit-picking *as long as the display PROPERLY processes the 1080 video*, because fixed-pixel displays are inherently progressive by nature.

Bottom line, expect to see a lot of games *render* 1080i but very few high-performance games go to the trouble of rendering 1080p for anything except spec-manship because it doubles (at least) the system workload and literally won't be noticeable on anything this side of a native, full-res, 1080p CRT.
And we know how common those are... :wink: