14 DAY TRIAL // The head of Microsoft's Xbox division believes that a smooth frame rate is much more important when it comes to gameplay than having a native 1080p resolution.
Phil Spencer argued that framerate was more critical to gameplay than high resolution was, when asked about the performance disparity between the PlayStation 4 from Sony and the Xbox One from Microsoft.
"We have done a lot of work with our partners and we constantly evolve our development tools," Spencer told CVG.
Spencer also debated how interested gamers really were in the performance gap between the two consoles, saying that he hadn't been asked about it in months. He also mentioned that his interest was to provide quality experiences for Xbox One owners, and at the end of the day, it was not about a magic number or a perfect resolution, but about gameplay.
"We announced that Destiny will have the same resolution and frame rate on Xbox One as PS4. There are a long list of games. Reaching parity with our partners has been important," he continued.
"But in the end I don't want it to be about a number, because 1080p isn't some mythical, perfect resolution. Frame rate to me is significantly more important to gameplay than resolution and the mix of those two which brings the right art style and freedom, whether it's on PlayStation or our platform," he explained.
He also pointed to Sony's decision to render The Order: 1886, the PlayStation 4 exclusive action adventure title with an emphasis on cinematic action, in 1920x800, with black bars at the top and bottom, just like a movie, and commented that he found the choice interesting.
"Clearly some genres like with racing sims like Forza, hitting 1080p/60fps is important. So there are certain genres where there's an expectation, but there are also other genres where I'd rather use the cycles to put more effects on screen or better lighting. I've got to put the tools in the hands of developers," Spencer pointed out.
He said that he wanted to put the right tools in the hands of the artists and then let them do their craft, not pursue a purely mathematical answer for what the right resolution and frame rate were for a certain game, because there was no such thing, and it was all up to the makers of a game to decide what was the best way for their creation to be experienced.