[Update] Penello has since taken to NeoGAF to clarify the statements he made last week. Here's what he had to say:
I appreciate those who understand the point I was trying to get across. It’s always hard, after sitting doing interviews all day, and you’re trying to have an engaging conversation with someone, and words get pulled out our the tone what you’re trying to say didn’t come out how you meant it.
You should also understand this interview was done after our launch event, and prior to E3. So please take that into consideration.
I’m not diminishing Sony’s performance claims and I wasn’t trying to be arrogant or dismissive. What I was trying to say is – I’m not Sony’s engineering team. So I can’t comment on what they have published as specs. I know what our teams are doing, and I know how they thought about architecting the system. The guys who are building these machines (on both sides) are unbelievably talented and experts in their field. Nobody knows the specifics of how the machines are architected or if there may be bottlenecks in one system or accelerators in another that change the impact of the published specs.
What I believe is that our games are going to be great and they are going to look next-gen, and I *think* E3 sort of showed that. And great games are what matters. And while you guys joke about the cloud stuff, I think the stuff the Respawn guys have said starts to clear up what we’ve been talking about with cloud performance (cue the “have you seen Titanfall” meme)
Games on both systems looked awesome. I was there, and while I know RISE took a hit on the gameplay that was shown, I thought it was the most next-gen looking game I saw on either platform. Of course, I get I’m biased and I didn’t have time to see everything.
[Original] Xbox One exec Albert Penello believes that Sony's hardware advantage with the PlayStation 4 isn't as big of a deal as many are making it out to be, going so far as to say that the disparity between the two consoles is "in some ways meaningless."
"The problem is that Sony decided to go and and publish a bunch of numbers," Penello said in an interview with OXM, emphasizing the fact that it's all about delivering great game experiences. "I feel like our games and experiences are going to be every bit as good, if not better, technically."
Penello went on to discuss Sony's approach, saying, "As a matter of fact, they actually go out and they talk about how proud they are about their off-the-shelf parts. Our guys'll say, we touched every single component in the box and everything there is tweaked for optimum performance."
In the end, the Xbox exec believes that arguing about which console is better based on tech specs is "a pointless argument because people are debating things which they don't know about."
Do you think the difference in technical power between the two will play an important role in this upcoming generation of gaming? Let us know in the comments below.
