Wii U is pretty close in cost to the PS4.
And lets not pretend like this is the archetypal Xbox One game. Forza is 1080p and Ryse looks perfectly next-gen.
I think looking at the game, its hard to blame this entirely on the hardware.
Explain to me why a 1 vs 1 exclusive fighter is 720p.
Ryse and Forza both look great. Ryse though is 30 fps. Forza is using last gen rendering techniques (though with great IQ and looking marvelous for it).
COD may look shit but it's using deferred rendering and a few other next gen tricks. I mean, it's using them to poor end results, but we're not talking aesthetics, we're talking tech.
there are clearly some issues keeping games using deferred lighting and other advanced techniques from hitting high resolutions. you have to hope they are SDK issues. but the people who told us about them in the first place said they were hardware issues.
that the resolutions are coming in as rumoured, lends weight to the notion that the Xbone struggles in certain ways.
NB: it is still outputting much better results than 360, even just looking at it in terms of framerate and resolution. BF4 is slightly higher resolution and double the framerate on Xbox One than BF3. COD: Ghosts is higher resolution and the same framerate.
but every game we know to be using deferred rendering, is sub 1080p. every game that is 60fps and using deferred rendering that we know of is 720p. NBA 2K14 might be an exception to that, but I don't think we know if it's using deferred rendering.
there is more going on here than a lazy port. just the same as with Battlefield 4. just the same as with Ryse not being 1080p.
PS4. every exclusive is 1080p and greater than 30 fps (though Killzone spends more time near 30 than 60, it still runs higher than 30. Same I believe with Knack).
Xbone. one exclusive is 1080p and 60 fps. one 720p and 60fps. one 900p and 30fps.
keep your head in the sand if you want, but that's what you're doing.
Xbox One games look next gen. the exclusives look great. But when it comes to resolution? The PS4 has it handily beaten. The difference isn't the sort of thing to make many people change their pre-orders... but it's the hardware causing these gaps in image quality and resolution.