Ghostbusters: PS3 is 960 by 540, Xbox 360 is 720p

Something appears to have gone a little wrong with Terminal Reality's PlayStation 3 Ghostbusters engine. At first touted as their lead platform, the native rendering resolution of the game is a little shocking.

In previous interviews, the game developers at Terminal Reality had talked up their PlayStation 3 technology for their upcoming Ghostbusters game. In a conversation with VideoGaming247 Terminal Reality president Mark Randel said:

"Personally, I want to show off our PS3 technology. We're one of the few developers who love the PS3 and have a great time with it. We have great technology for the PS3 and we want to show it off.

"We're running the same game for both platforms but if we made a PS3-only game, for example, you could double the amount of objects on screen that you're seeing. The PlayStation 3 has seven processors and the 360 only has three, so seven versus three means you can do a lot more on the PS3. We're keeping the game the same over both platforms so we don't want to take out any features," Randel added.

Alarms were raised after a comparison published on website Lens of Truth. They pointed out a number of differences that put the Xbox 360 version on top, including a lower texture quality and a mysteriously blurred image. After the above comments from the developers themselves, you wouldn't expect them to shoot themselves in the foot like this. You can find the Lens of Truth comparison after this link.

What the Lens of Truth were confused about was the resolution of the game. Was the PlayStation 3 version really running in high-definition at 720p? The answer is 'No.' We can confirm that the PS3 version of Ghostbusters is natively rendered at 960 by 540 pixels with quincunx AA. The Xbox 360 version is actually rendered at 720p (1280 by 720 pixels) with 2xMSAA.

You can find the proof of the PS3's rendering resolution in the below images provided by MazingerDUDE of Beyond3D technical forums, after referring to high-definition Ruliweb footage.

PS3 Ghostbuster's horizontal resolution (Click to enlarge)

PS3 Ghostbuster's vertical resolution (Click to enlarge)

If the PlayStation 3 was able to render so many objects on screen, it certainly appeared to come at a cost to Terminal Reality. It doesn't look like they ever had the time to refine their PS3 engine and instead heavily compromised the game to get it out the door. We must certainly question whether it was their 'lead platform.' We know how good PS3 games can look at 720p; you've all seen the incredible gameplay footage of Uncharted 2: Among Thieves.

So why the mix up between what Terminal Reality said during development and the final product? Of course, the team said a lot about objects on-screen, rather than textures and resolution, but that's surely pulling the wool over our eyes. A PSU.com interview might highlight the reason for complimenting the PS3 version of the game; pressure from Sony Pictures who owns the film's rights:

"Sony and the talent were adamant that before they got involved with a Ghostbusters game, the tech had to be capable of providing an authentic Ghostbusters experience, and that required graphics and physics tech," Terminal Reality Executive Producer Brendan Goss told PSU.