Does Alan Wake Run in 720p or 547p Native Resolution?

Kris Erickson • Apr 17, 2010 • Comments ()

Count each individual pixel in the still-frame image below while we wait. No seriously, we've got time so go ahead and get cracking. That's what some folks over at the NeoGaf forums did, because apparently they've got as much free time as we do. Or they just care about the resolution of games very, very much. After checking out some footage taken of the game and posted online by outfits such as Gamepro, the careful pixel-counters discovered an unsettling fact: even though Alan Wake looks fantastic, it may only be running natively at 547p on the Xbox 360. This would put it squarely in the sub-HD category and would break the hearts of fanboys the world over.

So, is that the final word on this game which, after committing the most unforgivable sin, has been erased from our hearts forever? Not so fast, according to the developer Remedy Entertainment. A community manager from that company jumped into the fray with the following statement:

'The game is 720p. Those screenshots are based off footage captured at 960x540 as pointed out, of course there will be some downsampling involved. As has been said before, Videogameszone and Gamepro both released footage without approval and due to the fact that we don't know how many compressions their videos went through or what process they took, it's best not to use those videos as sources.'

Now, a lowly community manager (basically a forums moderator) might not be the most credible source of information about the game, but it does at least qualify as an official source.