One of Sony's main arguments to win consumer support for the PS3 has been the ability to output games and movies in 1080p. Andre Vrignaud, Microsoft's Director of Technical Strategy for Xbox Live, claims that 1080p is insignificant for this generation of gaming. The following are excerpts from Mr. Vrignaud's blog, located at www.ozymandias.com.
"The PS3 has roughly the same pixel-pushing capabilities as the Xbox 360," asserted Vrignaud. "Don't need to take my word for it, it'll be obvious soon enough over the next year. Even if this wasn't the case, consider we now live in a multi-platform development world, and that the current sweet spot developers are targeting is 720p due to the extremely similar system specifications. Simply put, a developer who is planning to release their game for both the Xbox 360 and the PS3 will aim for a common attainable ground. In fact, I'll stick my neck out and predict that that you won't see any 1080"x" games for the PS3 this year."
It's understandable that Mr. Vrignaud would try to debunk one of his competitors selling points (he's an employee of Microsoft after all). He cites several sources, and even pokes holes in the image encoding abilities of Sony's Blu Ray disc. He ends his argument with a shot at Sony and a suggestion for his fellow gamers.
"To sum up, don't get sucked into all the 1080p hype. Just make sure you have a recent HDTV that de-interlaces 1080i signals correctly and you'll be just fine," he concluded.
Consumers will ultimately make up their minds concerning 1080p when games are actually released in that resolution. Until that time, speculation and rumors are all we have to go on. It's going to be a very interesting holiday for the console wars.
-Patrick Welch (FoeHammer)