News Digital Foundry falsely claims Redout runs at 1080p on Xbox One X

Last month, developer 34BigThings released an Xbox One X enhanced update for the WipeOut-inspired futuristic racer Redout bringing 4K support and a much-needed frame rate improvement. Digital Foundry, Eurogamer's respected tech analysis division, has now analysed the futuristic racer based on the latest update concluding that the Xbox One X version pales in comparison to the PS4 Pro version, citing a subpar frame and a locked 1080p resolution. 

34BigThings has since responded to the analysis, suggesting that Digital Foundry's claim that Redout only runs at 1080p on Xbox One X is false and even threatened legal action fearing that the "incompetent technical analysis" could damage the independent developer's reputation. "This is a pure, straight lie," CEO Valerio Di Donato wrote in an official statement. The developer went on to clarify that RedOut runs at a dynamic resolution on Xbox One X.

"The Xbox One X got an enhancement update a couple of weeks ago which brings 4k rendering with dynamic resolution scaling to everyone (owners or not of 4k TV). More specifically, we managed to scale the resolution between 90% and 50% of native 4k, which means the resolution goes from the upper limit of 3456×1944 to the lower one of 1920×1080 [confirmed also by VG Tech]. More technical details on this will follow in the next days, when everybody will be back from holiday vacations but meanwhile let us spell it out: it’s not 1080p."

Here's 34BigThings official statement in full:

Nicest part of a cloudy saturday morning? Waking up to a shitstorm raging upon you, based on what we can call incompetent technical analysis at best, fake news at worst.

Digital Foundry might have been a competent source of technical information in the past, but it might be currently going down to the click-baiting path. They just published an opinionated video on our game, Redout, in which they talk about Xbox One X performances, framerate and resolution, mentioning over and over that Redout shows a 1080p rendering for the Xbox One X version.

This is a pure, straight lie. The Xbox One X got an enhancement update a couple of weeks ago which brings 4k rendering with dynamic resolution scaling to everyone (owners or not of 4k TV). More specifically, we managed to scale the resolution between 90% and 50% of native 4k, which means the resolution goes from the upper limit of 3456×1944 to the lower one of 1920×1080 [confirmed also by VG Tech]. More technical details on this will follow in the next days, when everybody will be back from holiday vacations but meanwhile let us spell it out: it’s not 1080p.

As many users reported, there are still some framerate hiccups where the game can’t keep the 60fps pace and significantly drops below the 45+ threshold, which is something we are aware and very sorry of. This happens more frequently where many AI opponents are factored in, while it’s close to nonexistent on time attacks, solo races and races with few opponents. We are aware of these issues and we’ll keep working on those as long as possible.

But saying that Redout renders at 1080p is plain false. This, combined with the fact that some players seem to be highly sensitive to the XBox vs. PS4 performances tug-of-war, caused a rain of negative comments on our heads, all based on wrong information.

We are currently looking into various ways to defend our public image. Not only because we dislike being called lazy or incompetent gratuitously, but also to send a message to the players and the industry. Gamedevs (indies especially) are amongst the most hard working people, to the point that burnout and crunch culture in game development are widespread. Really, just stop calling them lazy to the first hiccup. And don’t fabricate excuses for calling them lazy. Ok? Thank you.

See you on the track, hopefully faster than ever.

Digital Foundry has since removed the video and has issued an apology for not recognising Redout's dynamic resolution on Xbox One X, but maintains that its criticisms over the game's inconsistent frame rate are still valid. 

"First of all, apologies to 34BigThings for the flak attracted by our article – we updated it once additional data from VGTech came in, which demonstrated that an error had been made, and have since pulled the video which is not so easily updated" Digital Foundry's David Bierton wrote on Eurogamer. "We will revisit the game and post a new version as soon as we can. However, it is still clear that Redout has issues on Xbox One X that aren't anything like as pronounced as the smoother PS4 Pro version, and the developer says they will work on improving them."

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