"Resolution Gate" has been a big topic going around in the gaming industry. You probably have seen news stories on how PS4 and XBOX One cannot run games at 1080p nor at 60fps but instead 720p or 900p. Some gamers are probably getting sick of hearing this topic and write on forums saying: "Why can't we just go back to the old days where games were not about graphics but just gameplay.” or “I play games, not pixels!" I don't 1080p because I'm not some graphics whore!” Well here is the thing: We have always been graphics whores.
It is simply the truth. We, gamers, love visuals and has been apparent ever since the dawn of video games. Sure, gameplay is more important than graphics and I stand by that ideology but graphics was, and still is, a marketing and selling point console competitors use to get consumers to buy the console and people buy into it. When the NES came out in 1983 while everybody owned an Atari 2600, people were amazed by how advanced and cutting-edge it was. That was considered advanced back in the day and leaps and bounds more capable than the Atari 2600 (Tangent note: That was the only time consoles were actually more powerful than PCs until the Commodore 64 and Apple II). NES ruled the later half of the 80s until two other consoles came into the market: The TurboGrafx 16 and the Sega Genesis. The NES had 8-bit graphics, the Sega Genesis and TurboGrafx could play games in 16-bit and that was the main selling point and the start of the Bit Wars.
You ever heard of the phrase “Genesis does, what Nintendon't” or “Blast Processing”? That was Sega's marketing campaign they use in their commercials and advertisements showing how the Genesis is more capable vs Nintendo's offerings. TurboGrafx did a commercial on how advanced its console was compared to the NES. Leaps and bounds better and people back then ate that up for how vastly better it was. Nintendo retaliated with the SNES in 1991 and how it has a huger color palette than its competitors and can actually play some three-dimensional games like Star Fox & Super Mario RPG. This then resulted in the two companies aggressively competing against each other for console supremacy and prepubescent American children fighting at their school playgrounds over which plastic box is better all the way until the mid 90s when the Nintendo 64 and Sony Playstation One came out and Sega going downhill.
Now back to resolution. You can't have too many pixels, eh? You ask yourself why is 1080p such a big deal? Isn't it recent?
Nope, 1080p has been around for more than a decade! Early 2000s I would go far back as to say. Sure, back then it was a luxury to have just like 4K is now but it was going to be more affordable in a few years. 1080P is already a standard now and getting monitors and TV's at that native resolution are cheap and easy to get. In a few years from now, 4K will become the new standard for displays. The big thing you need to know is during the 7th generation of consoles, Sony and Microsoft promised that their consoles could play games at 1080p or full HD but fall backed on that and instead said that they would do 720p instead and upscale the resolution. Now these consoles could play games at 1080p/60fps if the games were as simple as the PS2/Original Xbox. Graphical stagnation doesn't look good for your console and the consumer doesn't want to buy a new console if the graphics looks the same as its predecessor. Developers instead have to use the raw power of new consoles to have stunning visuals even if it means the game will run at a lower frame rate and resolution. Guess what: people will buy a new console if it means they will get a better experience from the older console and has more eye candy. Eye candy is one of those things where you say to yourself “I got to have it. No! I need it!”. You don't want to keep that old Xbox and be called the poor kid among your peers. Its like having a VCR while everybody including your grandma has a DVD player.
Move on to the current generation of consoles, the PS4 and the Xbox Juan (yes, I intentionally misspelled it. No, I am not going to change it.). After the 8 year long 7th generation of consoles, people were expecting that these new consoles would do 1080p/60fps flawlessly, but they are playing at the same resolutions just as the last generation. Here is a quick rundown of the past console generation and the resolutions they were able to run at the time: 6th gen(480p), 7th gen(720p), 8th gen(720-900p?). 900p is still below Full HD, and the 60fps is just out of the question. To give an example, look at the 8th gen console version of games like Destiny, TitanFall and Watch Dogs and compare it to the 7th gen console ports. They look almost identical. You may say “But the PS4 and Xbox One versions looks slightly better than its predecessors, Ike!” That is the thing: “slightly” better, not a night and day difference better like other console generations before it. Because of this, people are questioning about the capabilities of the new consoles and start to ask themselves “Did I just just pay $400 for a console that plays at the exact same resolution as the one before it?” and “Why did I bother upgrading to a new console if I am basically getting the same thing?”. We live in an era where everything is in 1080p whether in TV shows, movies, YouTube videos, and yet console games can't do the same thing? This is why 1080p is a big freaking deal. Imagine when 4K resolution becomes the norm in a few years and console games still run at 720p. People will be outraged and disappointed, simple as that.
Now what should be done to deal with this debacle? Personally, I would like to see developers give you graphical options like in PC gaming so you have the choice to turn down the visuals (like shadow quality, view distance, anisotropic filtering, texture quality, etc) if you want to have smoother gameplay and higher resolutions or turn up the graphics if you want that eye-candy but willing to sacrificing performance, but consoles don't give you much choices. It is 2014 and we should not tell developers to compromise framerate and resolution. I do not give two damns if you are BORED of hearing this. If you want to play better games with amazing experiences in the future, do yourself a favor and be vocal or use your wallets wisely or else developers will keeping raping you in the ass(in other words, taking advantage of you)! I hope you enjoyed the long read and learn something today and I will link down sources that support my argument. I feel this is very important topic in the game industry and should not be dismissed.
-John Bain aka TotalBiscuit's take on games running at 720p/30fps
-Article that actually predicated consoles not running at 1080p/60fps
-2006 article that tells Sony will not reach its goal of Full HD
-Rich of ReviewTechUSA's take on Resolution-Gate
-30fps vs 60fps comparison using mp4 video
-Xbox 360 will “supposedly” get 1080p
-Destiny current gen vs. last gen graphics comparison
