The Xbox One vs. PS4 1080p debate is an unwinnable war, says Titanfall developer
Producer Drew McCoy says getting worked up over specs is silly because, "that's a war that no one actually wins."
There's been no shortage of debate concerning the ongoing "war" between Microsoft and Sony in the battle for the living room. One argument that constantly makes the rounds is the fact that right now, more PlayStation 4 games run in 1080p than they do on Xbox One. In fact, one of the Xbox One's biggest and most important titles to date--Respawn Entertainment's multiplayer shooter Titanfall--does not run in 1080p. But the debate over respective resolutions between platforms does not interest Titanfall producer Drew McCoy.
"It's the console wars. It's Sega does what Nintendon't," McCoy told GameSpot at PAX East about why he believes the 1080p debate has gathered so much attention this year. "There's going to be games that look better on one or the other. There's going to be exclusives that look better, for whatever reason. And we never set out to engage in the tech war. I feel like that's a war that no one actually wins."
"We never set out to engage in the tech war. I feel like that's a war that no one actually wins" Titanfall producer Drew McCoy
"We consciously just decided that we're going to make a game that's fun and new and exciting and then worry about making it as good-looking as we can," he added. "And I don't think we made an ugly game, but no one in the office will tell you we made the prettiest game out there. Or [the one that] runs at the highest resolution."
Titanfall runs in the oddball native resolution of 792p, and because it's not available on PS4, there is obviously no comparison to be made there. McCoy teased that Respawn is experimenting with ways in which it can improve visual performance, but overall, he doesn't want to get wrapped up in a debate about specs. It's just not worth it, he says.
"We have more that we can do. We're looking at performance stuff on Xbox One; the PC patch added some stuff; and we're working with NVIDIA for some things on PC as well," McCoy said. "At the end of the day we don't really care. People were roasting us because we run at higher than 720p but we're not a solid locked [60fps] yet. And it's like, 'Yeah, well you know what, guess what? The GPU isn't always a thing that limits your frame rate and your performance.' So we hit the highest resolution we could without limiting the GPU."
Titanfall's first DLC expansion, Expedition, launches next month and introduces three new multiplayer maps to the game. Respawn is also planning to support Titanfall extensively with new modes and features--all of which will be entirely free.
Titanfall launched March 11 for Xbox One and PC, and came to Xbox 360 earlier this month. We'll find out how well the game sold--and how much it helped sell Xbox Ones--later today when the NPD Group releases sales information for the month of March.
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