We’ve all known for a while that the HD-DVD drive is coming out for the Xbox 360 but, little did we know that Microsoft had another card up its sleeve. 1080p! That’s right. in a press release [via Major Nelson] and conference at the Tokyo Game Show, it was announced that the HD-DVD player will output at 1080p. Games will also have access to this apparently “True HD” resolution. The caveat at this stage is that the games may just be upscaled from the original 720p that the Xbox 360 processes.
With the upgradeability of the system’s software and ATI’s GPU capable of 1080p with 4x Anti-aliasing with no performance penatly, we might see Xbox 360 games produced for 1080p without scaling.
The HD-DVD drive will be available in Japan from 17th November 2006 at an estimated 19,800 Yen (around £89).