14 DAY TRIAL // A Microsoft executive has shared his thoughts on the recent controversies in terms of video game performance on the PS4 and Xbox One, saying that, unless you're playing on massive screens, the difference is hard to notice.
Ever since the PS4 and Xbox One were released onto the market last year, there has been an ongoing controversy surrounding the lack of power of Microsoft's console, as Sony's device was able to render games at higher resolutions and framerates.
The trend continues nowadays, as quite a few upcoming titles have been confirmed to run at a lower resolution or framerate on the Xbox One than on the PS4.
Microsoft's UK Marketing boss Harvey Eagle, however, doesn't believe that the differences in terms of resolution or framerate are that important and that the controversies stem from a perception issue, as very few fans can actually see the lack of quality.
"I think it's a perception challenge, absolutely," Eagle told CVG. "If you put third-party games side-by-side that are running at slightly different resolutions or frame rates, then unless you are using a screen that's more than 60 inches big, I defy you to really see the difference. I personally struggle to see the difference."
Eagle, however, notes that the perception can be changed through software updates for the Xbox One, such as the recent devkit one that unlocked more GPU reserve power for game developers to use as they see fit.
"It's important, certainly. It's something the media has certainly picked up on. If that leads to the perception that one machine is more powerful than another, then it's important, and we're trying to allow developers to bring games to Xbox One at the highest resolution and frame rate as possible."
"There is some GPU power that can be allocated to Kinect that we're now freeing up for developers if they want to increase the fidelity of their games. I want to point out though that this is absolutely up to the developer on how they deploy the power."
Already some video game developers have confirmed that they've used the extra power to improve their titles on the Xbox One, such as Bungie with Destiny or Insomniac Games with Sunset Overdrive.
Even so, it's going to be interesting to see how the big games set to debut this fall on both consoles will perform on the two devices. Until then, expect to hear more reports about the differences between the two consoles.