Destiny's Xbox One resolution raised after Kinect GPU reserve removal

UPDATE 11/6/14 10.30am: Destiny will run at 1080p and 30fps on Xbox One following Microsoft's resource-freeing June software development kit update.

That's according to a Twitter post from Spike TV's Geoff Keighley, who spoke to developer Bungie about the issue.

It means that the game will now run at the same resolution and frame-rate as its PlayStation 4 version - also 1080p 30fps.

UPDATE 9/6/14 2.30pm: The Xbox One version of Destiny will have a higher resolution than originally planned thanks to Microsoft's decision to "unlock" system resources previously reserved for Kinect.

Microsoft's June software development kit removes the previous allocation of GPU specifically reserved for Kinect, meaning more memory is available directly to games.

Speaking last night in a Major Nelson podcast (thanks, Total Xbox), Xbox boss Phil Spencer explained the change and gave examples of two games that would benefit.

"I think about games like Sunset Overdrive, that's going to take advantage of the June [SDK]," Spencer said. "And they're going to use the increased capability that lowering the reserve will have to actually make a more vibrant and alive gameplay space, so that's where they're going to invest.

"Even our friends at Bungie, and I've been spending a lot of time down there, they're going to pick up the June SDK update for Destiny, and they're going to up the resolution of Destiny based on this change. So I think it's just a great time for us."

But you won't need to unplug your Kinect to see the difference, Spencer added.

"We wanted to give developers a choice on how much of the reserve, the Kinect reserve, they wanted to leave in the system," Spencer continued. "If they know how they're going to use Kinect, or if they're going to not use Kinect in their game, we wanted them to have the option at a game side to decide how much of that reserve will remain.

"It has nothing to do with Kinect being plugged in, in fact everyone should leave Kinect plugged in, because as soon as the game isn't running anymore, you quit the game, you go back to the dash, you are going to have all the great Kinect functionality that you ever had, and you can boot a Kinect game and the Kinect will continue to work - it'll have no impact on the game that decides off the back end that it's going to lower the reserve that's set in."

Digital Foundry recently investigated the question of whether a Kinect-free Xbox One might mean more power for games. It would, Rich Leadbetter argued, but it may not close the gap.