Xbox fans hate ‘parity,’ but I want it after playing PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds

Bungie confirmed at E3 (the Electronic Entertainment Expo trade show) in Los Angeles last week that its upcoming sci-fi shooter Destiny 2 will run at 30 frames per second on all consoles. That includes even the far more powerful Xbox One X from Microsoft, which has the horsepower to render the game faster than PlayStation 4, Xbox One, or even the PS4 Pro.

The concept of holding a game back on one console so that it runs similar to how it does on another system has a name. It’s called “parity.” It has taken on a pejorative context because of cases like this, but it is one of the best reasons to own a console. Parity is important in something like Destiny 2 because a higher framerate on Xbox One X could give players a distinct advantage over opponents playing at 30 fps on the original Xbox One. And controlling how games look and run is something that I sometimes miss when playing on PC — especially with something like the last-man-standing online shooter PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds.