Activision is running to the defense of Infinity Ward as members of the gaming media try to run a damage control campaign after it was revealed that Call of Duty: Ghosts isn't running native 1080p on the PlayStation 4, but was instead relegated to 720p.
We recently pointed out that a lot of graphics comparisons and review comments relating to graphics comparisons between the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 versions of Call of Duty: Ghosts were compromised due to the revelation that the game wasn't running at its intended resolution on the PlayStation 4.
IGN, after reporting on the Eurogamer article, was sent an updated note from Activision related to the graphics comparison tests that many big-name sites ran, and issued the following statement to the public...
Activision has confirmed that the version of Call of Duty: Ghosts made available to IGN for review (and displayed in the video embedded below) was presented at native 1080p. The issue described below and the corresponding day-one patch only affect retail copies of the game.
Video comparison that is allegedly native 1080p for PS4 and native 720p (upscaled to 1080p) for the Xbox One is below.
Someone from NeoGaf appropriately summed up the situation with the following statement...
"Wow, this is a shitstorm of shittiness."
Many are running to the defense of the gaming media, claiming that the copies that were used during the graphics comparisons were debug copies and not from the gold master disc version, which is the retail copy of the game.
According to some – however, it hasn't been confirmed – the pixel counter version of the game already contained the patch for native resolutions of progressive 1920×1080 on the PlayStation 4, and only the retail copies were devoid of the patch.
The update came fast and furious as articles, like the one by Crave Online, notes that the day-one update rendered previous graphics comparisons invalid due to the resolution discrepancy, meaning that the PS4 versions of Ghosts were allegedly running native 720p upscaled to 1080p, identical to the way the Xbox One runs the game, hence why a lot of reviewers claimed they couldn't tell the difference.
Others, however, believe that Infinity Ward's relegation of the game on PS4 to native 720p gave the Xbox One a slight advantage in the benchmarks that would make the differences less noticeable to the public eye.
Given all the shady dealings leading up to the release of the consoles, it's hard to completely throw the scenario away as unimportant or dismiss some of the concerns of gamers who feel the PS4 may have been shortchanged in the promotional lead-up to the release of Call of Duty:Ghosts' reviews for the next-gen consoles from Sony and Microsoft. I mean, there was a lot of worry over Infinity Ward's executive producer's coy comments (or lack thereof) regarding the power difference between the PS4 and Xbox One. That's not to mention the separate embargo Microsoft put in place for Call of Duty: Ghosts.
When we contacted Microsoft about their NDA policies regarding journalists and developers talking honestly about the differences between both consoles, we were referred to – in this particular case – Activision. Around, around and around we go.
If the next-gen console wars smells a bit rotten to you, it's because the stench of politics has risen into the air.
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