Are Console Developers Neglecting Their Standard-Def Players?

The Digital Foundry blog takes a look at how the focus on high-quality graphics in console game development may be lost on more gamers than people realize. According to Mark Rein of Epic Games, more than half of Gears of War 2 users played the game on a standard-definition television. While you might expect that dropping the graphics quality would correspond to a boost in frame rates, that turns out not to be the case, and running at standard definition can actually be a detriment in some cases. Quoting: "PAL50 is mandatory for SD gameplay on all games on all European PS3s. You can't avoid running at a sub-optimal 50Hz unless you splash out on a high-def screen. The Euro release of Killzone 2 works at SD resolution on any PS3, even if it can only run at PAL50 on a Euro machine. In short, if you're a Euro PS3 owner playing Killzone 2 on a standard-definition display, you're losing around 17 per cent of the frame-rate owing to the lack of PAL60 support in the PS3 hardware. The game itself isn't slower as such (as was often the case in the Mega Drive/SNES era), and you'll note that it's effectively a sustained 25FPS while the 60Hz versions can be somewhat more variable. But Killzone 2 is already somewhat laggy in its control system and this impacts the feel of the game still further. While there is a 17 per cent increase in resolution, this is far less noticeable than the additional numbness in the controls."

Comments

boo hoo?

[timmarhy]

as long as the fonts are readable and the game is getting 25fps or greater, what right do you have to whinge? I own a 70" full hi def tv, you'd want to hope content creators are pandering to the leading edge consumers since they are where the money is, not your stingey cheap skates still playing their xbox on a 50cm CRT. how the hell else are you going to see progress?!

Re:Why does someone have a $300-$400 console but n

[Anonymous Coward]

turn in your geek card. you're obviously a moron

Re:Old Snake would never approve.

[Anonymous Coward]

ANY Snake would have pistol-whipped you for buying a ps3 just to play MGS4 when you could play it through YouTube. No Place For Kojima!

But you're just a fucking idiot.

--Ethanol-fueled

Re:They're just raping you...

[Quantos]

I got modded down for that? That just goes to show how smart the average mod is. Have at it boys, don't take anything with a grain of salt or anything. I'm not trolling, I'm dead serious, you really are idiots.