Microsoft Won't Say if Quantum Break Runs at 720p on the Xbox One

Late last weekend it came to light that time-bending shooter Quantum Break was running at 720p on the Xbox One. This was discovered by Digital Foundry - a website focussing on the technical side of video games.

"In every scene tested so far, a native resolution of 720p is the consistent result found in each pixel count test - so while there's every possibility of individual render targets operating at higher resolutions, basic geometry that we're able to measure hands in a 720p result as things stand," a post on the site read.

According to a presentation made by the game's developer, Remedy Entertainment at Siggraph 2015, the game runs at 1080p, 30 frames per second on the Xbox One.

However later a few more details were added to Digital Foundry's report, most notably without it being mentioned that it was updated. This was noticed by members of popular gaming forum, NeoGAF:

"A mixture of strong post effects (such as film grain and motion blur), plus excellent anti-aliasing work well in hiding much of the stair-stepping we'd expect of a lower resolution game. Added to this, image quality appears sharper and noticeably cleaner in more static scenes, where a pixel count suggests something closer to a 900p presentation," it states. "A temporal reconstruction anti-aliasing solution is a strong contender - a technique where information from previously rendered frames is blended with the current one."

Meanwhile fans took to Twitter to ask Xbox boss Phil Spencer if it indeed is a 720p game. He was noncommittal at best, evading the question completely.

"I encourage you to try a game before you make any pre-judgements about what makes a game good or bad", he tweeted. This was followed up with another tweet thanking them for their support and that he thinks they'll "enjoy it".

(Also see: Quantum Break Price in India Revealed; Exclusive to Flipkart)

At the same time others asked Thomas Puha, PR Head at Remedy - the game's developer if there would be a "graphical patch" for the game on its release.

"[N]o, we have never said anything like that. There is a title update, mostly bug fixes etc. Reviewers got it last week already," Puha replied, indicating that whatever Quantum Break's resolution is on the Xbox One, it will not be enhanced.

With 1080p being the expected standard resolution from this generation of consoles, it's interesting to see Remedy play fast and loose. Simply put, no matter how good it looks, its technical chops put the game inline with what you'd get from an Xbox 360 title rather than an Xbox One exclusive. It's perhaps another sign that current generation consoles are underpowered, what with Sony and Microsoft looking at mid-generation hardware upgrades to the PS4 and Xbox One respectively.