No 1080p PS3 games this year?

Throwing cold water on Sony's talk of 1080p output for the PS3, Microsoft's Andre Vrignaud has warned that the company's claims are nothing but hype.

In a post on his blog, Vrignaud - who is director of technical strategy for Xbox Live - argues that developers looking to create a game for the next generation consoles will be aiming for 720p in order to maximise compatibility between Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, as well as ensuring compatibility with the majority of HD television sets.

"The PS3 has roughly the same pixel-pushing capabilities as the Xbox 360. You don't need to take my word for it, it'll be obvious soon enough over the next year," Vrignaud stated.

"In fact, I'll stick my neck out and predict that that you won't see any 1080"x" games for the PS3 this year."

Vrignaud reckons that modern HD equipment will display movie content - either on HD DVD or Blu-ray - progressively even if the input is interlaced, which makes the PS3's much touted 1080p resolution functionality a bit irrelevant when it comes to the equipment we've currently got in our homes.

"99% of PS3 titles will natively render at 720p; the few that come out with 1080"x" support are either going to be simple classic arcade ports that don't need to render complex scenes... Or will give up a lot of in-game visual effects and simply won't look very good (hence the poor showing of Gran Turismo "HD" at this past E3)," he continued.

"Don't get sucked into all the 1080p hype. Just make sure you have a recent HDTV that de-interlaces 1080i signals correctly and you'll be just fine."