Is resolution really that important?

A better chance of hitting a 1080p resolution has been named as the PS4’s best selling point, ahead of its Blu-ray player and games.

It appears that people really do care about what resolution their games run at, according to a new Nielsen survey that asked people for the five main reason why they had bought a PlayStation 4, Xbox One, or Wii U.

As you can see in the chart below the number one reason was ‘better resolution’ for the PlayStation 4, with ‘faster processing power’ at number four.

The PlayStation 4 has always been presented as the most powerful of the current gen consoles, although until this month’s The Order: 1886 there have been few games that have unequivocally demonstrated that fact.




Most multiformat games look almost identical, except for the resolution. Although it varies from game to game, it’s common for the PlayStation 4 to run at 1080p and the Xbox One at 720p or 900p.

Some games do run at the same resolution on both formats but many people can’t tell the difference just by looking at the screen, unless they have both versions sitting right next to each other – especially the difference between 900p and 1080p.

Nevertheless, the resolution offers a clear and unambiguous indication of the console’s power, especially compared to the vaguer measurements of ‘faster processing power’.

Apparently most people buy an Xbox… because it’s an Xbox

As you can see the games available on the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One are a comparatively unimportant part of equation, with ‘game library’ the third most important reason for buying a PlayStation 4 and ‘exclusive games/content’ the fourth most important reason on the Xbox One.

The number one reason for buying a Wii U was given as ‘fun-factor’, which was also listed as the fifth most important reason for buying an Xbox One. It wasn’t mentioned in the context of the PlayStation 4.

Also of interest is that 86 per cent of Wii U owners previously owned a Wii, but only around 65 per cent had a Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3 – suggesting that a significant minority of Wii U owners are still casual gamers.

The PlayStation 4 seemed to have more defectors from the previous generation, with 59 per cent of owners previously having had an Xbox 360. That’s compared to 43 per cent of Xbox One owners who used to have a PlayStation 3.

Although in many cases more committed gamers would’ve had both last gen machines.

It seems this wasn’t the first gen of consoles for most people

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