Infinity Ward: Xbox One Resolution Due to Xbox One Resource Allocation

In a new interview Infinity Ward’s Mark Rubin doesn’t say declare that the Xbox One’s hardware is no match for the PlayStation 4, however he does confirm that the way the Xbox One handles memory allocation insured that the developer couldn’t get Call of Duty: Ghosts running with the same resolution as its PlayStation 4 counterpart.

Rubin discussed the issue with Eurogamer this afternoon, saying that “Early on, we didn’t know where exactly the resolution of anything would fall because we didn’t have hardware or the software to support it. We tried to focus in on 1080p, and if we felt like we were on borderline of performance somewhere… We tried to make the best decision for each platform that gives you the best-looking game we could get and maintains that 60 frames a second.”

According Rubin it wasn’t a specific resource on the Xbox One that caused the developer to change the frame right for Call of Duty: Ghosts just a month ago. Instead, it was simply a combination of things that meant the Xbox One couldn’t run the game as smoothly as the developer would have liked at 1080p. In fact the entire portion of the interview indicates that it’s not the Xbox One hardware that caused an issue but the amount of resources that are dedicated to just gaming.

It’s Rubin’s belief that “some people might notice if they had them right next to each other. Some people might not.” Although Call of Duty: Ghosts will run at 720p, the Xbox One will scale this resolution to 1080p.

Rubin also indicates that the developer could get the Xbox One version of the game running at 1080p, however Infinity Ward wouldn’t have been satisfied with its frame rate.

Read: Call of Duty: Ghosts plays at 720p on Xbox One and That’s Ok

This could be the smoking gun for users who have criticized the Xbox One for not being as focused on video games at it could be. The software running on the Xbox One allocates resources for multitasking in Internet Explorer and video-chatting with friends while playing video games. If Rubin is correct, Microsoft could theoretically adjust the Xbox One’s software to give video games more resources. However, Microsoft is hoping that users will see it’s console as an all-in-one entertainment the device that allows users to switch between gaming and other activities almost instantly. It’s worth noting that Microsoft has already confirmed that its own Forza 5 racing simulation runs at 1080p natively.

Regardless, it’s unlikely that users would be able to tell the difference between the Call of Duty: Ghost’s Xbox One and PlayStation 4 versions without them both running side-by-side. The Xbox One launches on November 22nd with the PlayStation 4 launching the week before on November 15th.