It isn't that people prefer 720p. I would prefer for most games to be in 1080p if isn't presenting a problem for devs to get the game looking as amazing as they want it to, since that's the max resolution of my television. However, the other side of it is that some people don't have a major issue with 720p, or any other resolution that is lower than 1080p, as long as there are no sub 720p resolution games.
Would too many games turning out to be 720p on the Xbox One be a bit of a disappointment. Absolutely. It would absolutely be disappointing, because I think there's more than enough power there to have better than 720p resolutions on the large majority of games, and if it turns out that there isn't enough power there to meet that standard, then obviously Microsoft messed up. But, that said, I'm also careful not to lose sight of the fact that games mean far more to me than just what resolution their rendering at. If Hironobu Sakaguchi announced a new major JRPG title, and told everyone it was native 720p,
I would not care.
I want to play games that look fun and interesting, that appeal to the kinds of things I like, and resolution doesn't prevent me from doing any of that. If a game is 720p, and is something that looks like it's my style of game, the resolution will not make me hesitate. Not even a little bit. I don't look at a game and ask myself what resolution it's rendering at. I look at a game and make an assessment on whether or not I think this game looks good, and whether or not it's something that I would personally like to purchase and own. It's about the games. That's what it's always been about. We lose track of that way too much, because some people seem to treat games as if they live and die solely based on their native rendering resolution. What about the game itself? If I gave a damn about what we've been able to do easily on the PC for years, I would strictly focus on making my already really powerful PC even more powerful, but that's not what I'm interested in doing (at least not as my top priority). I'm not interested in gaming at the highest possible resolutions. It's not a major priority for me. I just want games that I think look great, and that I find exciting, and nowadays I prefer to play them on a console connected to my HDTV.
That game being 1080p also? That's an awesome bonus, as far as I'm concerned, and I do absolutely appreciate when devs can go the extra mile to make that happen. I just won't demand it of them. This isn't just a feeling I share about the Xbox One. I feel the same way about the PS4 also. The PS4 being as powerful as it is just has less reason not to be 1080p, but it's not something that I demand of every possible gaming experience on that console either, and it isn't very hard to see that the PS4 clearly looks the part of the more ideal system for native 1080p resolutions. The upside, however, of any game that targets 720p is that it likely guarantees 60fps, and coming from the last generation, that's a luxury I appreciate with much higher levels of graphical fidelity.
I think this is the first cboat post, I've been able to understand without help from a translator (probably because it doesn't sound like bad news
lol). And, it's good to hear a more positive outlook. And, right you are, the games being good are what matters.