Bungie bumped the sci-fi game's resolution to 1080p on Microsoft's next-gen console just in time for release

Sep 14, 2014 19:24 GMT  ·  By

After a rather long and full of hype waiting period, Bungie’s sci-fi shooter Destiny is finally out for the world to enjoy. And in spite of fears regarding the platform parity across next-gen consoles, the game runs the same on both the Xbox One and PlayStation 4.

During the game’s beta test in July, the Xbox One edition was running in 900p resolution, which, of course, offered some fodder to those eager to jump on the console flame wars train. Fortunately, the developer managed to up the resolution to 1080p, matching the one on the PlayStation 4, while also maintaining the 30 frames per second lock at all times.

But not everyone took their word, and so the talented individuals at Digital Foundry set out to test everything for themselves and make sure that no frames would be dropped due to the resolution bump, and that everything would run smoothly across both platforms.

Why would anyone care

Destiny is one of the biggest releases of the year, attempting to push the boundaries of the first-person shooter genre by adding in massively multiplayer online and role-playing game elements, in an attempt to offer a deeper and more varied experience to its players.

The game had a massive budget, including a lot of marketing and long-term support plans consisting of content expansions, of which two have already been announced.

Publisher Activision intends to make Destiny its third billion-dollar franchise, and have it sit next to Skylanders and Call of Duty, which means that any of the two big new consoles having an edge over its competitor would translate into a lot of PR fluff.

This means that having the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 versions being on par performance-wise is pretty important for both Microsoft and Sony, and especially for the Redmond-based giant, as any discrepancies would translate into even more bad publicity.

How the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 stack up to each other

The Digital Foundry team talks about a lot of things, such as frame rate, terrain detail, contrast, colors, output and loading times (with the Xbox One surprisingly coming on top for the Tower, with an average of 58 seconds loading time as opposed to the PS4’s 61), and the verdict is that both consoles offer the same visual and technical experience, with the PS4 having a marginal advantage.

The only difference lies in the fact that the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4 editions of Destiny come with a bit of extra content (which is not that much, considering the wealth of content the game has) and Remote Play compatibility with the PlayStation Vita, allowing you to enjoy the game on the go.