Call of Duty: Ghosts Resolution on XBox One 720p, PS4 1080p
Infinity Ward confirmed that there will be different native resolutions for Call of Duty: Ghosts on PS4 and Xbox One. PS4 will run the game natively in 1080p (1920 x 1080), whereas the the Xbox One will run it natively at 720p (1280 x 720) and upscale to 1080p for display on televisions.
Head of Infinity Ward Mark Rubin explains this difference:
“We optimized each console to hit 60 FPS and the game looks great on both.”
This announcement continues the trend started when it was announced that Battlefield 4 will run on different resolutions for the two next gen systems. EA’s hit shooter will run at 900p on PS4 and at 720p on Xbox One.
What this actually means is that the PS4 version will technically be graphically superior. It will have a higher graphical fidelity because some quality is lost to the upscale process. Upscaling is useful to increase frames per second when needed by decreasing the system’s load on rendering graphics. Rubin’s reasoning is sound; anything less than 60 FPS would certainly not be acceptable to many players. A lower frame rate is far more obvious and obtrusive than upscaled resolution.
Very few users, however, will likely notice a difference in quality. Much like the difference between CD quality WAV audio files and compressed audio formats like MP3s, only people who love and know high fidelity graphics will notice the difference. The game will look just as enthralling on either system to most users.
What this difference means about the different technical abilities of both systems, though, is yet to be seen. Do not let this difference in resolutions make the decision for you between the systems, but be aware that it might signal further differences in the future, or it might not. We have yet to see.
Call of Duty: Ghosts will be released on current generation systems (PS3, Xbox 360, Wii U, and PC) on November 5th. Both Call of Duty: Ghosts and Battlefield 4 will be launch titles for PS4 and Xbox One. The final release date for these versions is not confirmed, but expected to be late November.
