Microsoft has commented that Kinect-removal could help the Xbox One gain a bit of graphical strength, but it doesn’t seem as though these changes are going to make a difference in time for the release of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. Speaking with EuroGamer, CD Projekt RED co-founder Marcin Iwinksi all but insinuated that PS4 will probably have the upper hand when the game ships in February.
We are still working on squeezing the juice out of the consoles and Microsoft are supporting us in this respect. The final effect, whether it’s 720p, 1080p – we had the debate in the studio about it and actually asked our tech guys to explain how it works, and they sent me some complicated graphs that ‘if I have this size of the screen, and I sit one meter or two meters from it, then I might be able to see the difference’.
Iwinski may think resolution is no big deal, especially if you sit on a couch far from your TV. In that particular case, he’s largely correct. Not everybody games that way, though, and when I boot up GTA V, beautiful as it is, on my 27-inch 1080p monitor just a few feet in front of me, I can see every last jagged or pixelated edge.
Still, Iwinski went on to call the difference largely a “PR differentiation,” noting that Sony is using Xbox One’s resolution woes to its advantage every chance it gets. Overall, Iwinski sounds confident that the differences won’t be too drastic, but also confirms that his team won’t be dumbing down either version to make it match the other.
We’re definitely working to max out each of the platforms in terms of what we can get, because that’s a crucial element of The Witcher. Will there be big differences? Really I don’t think so. It’s too early to say. If there will be, they will be tiny. It will be more like people talking ‘hey, I have this and you have that and this is better.’
We don’t want to make any artificial things with the game, and both platform holders are supportive in terms of making sure it runs to the full potential. Again, it’s against our values to dumb anything down for the sake of some business arrangement.
Sounds fair enough, and who knows; maybe Microsoft will have time to fill CD Projekt RED in on how the “Kinect Boost” can help them get the Xbox One version up to snuff with its competitor. Given that Kinect support is still on the table as a possibility “if there’s added value,” though, it’s probably best to accept fate and move on. Xbox One owners may just have to make sure they sit far enough from their TVs for this one.
