"So, there's been a ton of debate recently about the resolution disparities of certain games on PlayStation4 and Xbox One, aka RESOLUTION GATE. And this of course follows a long tradition of gamers and marketers obsessing over next-gen graphics. But after taking a look, we began to wonder do great graphics make for a great game? Sure, graphics allow game designers to do amazing things, but what most gamers truly want is IMMERSION - that feeling of being fully sucked into a game. And when we looked at the psychology of immersion, we found that graphics might not be that important :/. In fact, our obsession with graphics might be holding us back from spreading games into other more artistic avenues. So we had to ask how much do graphics really matter?"

Back when graphics were simple, we had a long way to go to make video games better. Not to say Zork didn't have it's place, but nicer graphics are generally a good thing. Does the difference between 1080p and 720p really matter? Well, sure but not by much.

I played Fallout 3 on the PS3 in glorious 720p, would it have been a better game in 1080p? Certain not, but the experience may have been. I don't mind a bit higher resolution on games, I think it can really make for a great experience. That said, Fallout 3 is still an awesome game in 720p so do super fancy graphics really matter?

I would say that largely no, they don't, but impressive visuals can make a game more effective.