When Microsoft first showed off the Xbox 360 on MTV, what, four years ago, that was supposed to be the birth of the Era of HD Gaming. And while you and I may have a 1080p TV (and maybe even an entry level surround sound setup), it turns out, at least according to Epic Games’ Mark Rein, not even half of the people who played Gears of War 2 played it on a HDTV. That’s right, 50 percent of the people who battled the Locusts didn’t do so on an HDTV!
And what are the implications of this? Probably that we’ll be hanging onto this generation of video game consoles for a little while longer than usual. What’s the point of launching a new Xbox when half the people who have one haven’t really seen what it can do? It certainly saves developers money—no having to start over from scratch, trying to figure out the odds and ends of fancy, new (read: complicated) hardware in order to create an engine that “pushes the limits” or whatever.
I could be totally uncreative and end this with the question, “HOW MANY OF YOU PLAY YOUR GAMES ON AN HDTV?”
But I won’t.
via Kotaku
