Prototype’s Xbox One ports run slower than the game did on Xbox 360

This week a remastered edition of 2009’s Prototype and 2012’s Prototype 2 quietly slipped onto the online stores for Xbox One and PlayStation 4, with practically no marketing. Eurogamer’s Digital Foundry seems to have found an answer why: The games run slower on Xbox One than they did on the Xbox 360.

While both Prototype and Prototype 2 play in a higher resolution of 1080p, the game’s framerate slows considerably during combat sequences, Eurogamer says. Cutscenes in Prototype 2 also suffer from a glaring stutter, and in-game travel unfolds at 20 to 25 frames per second with a lot of screen tearing. In battle, it can get slower.

“Worse still is the fact PS3 completely overshadows Xbox One in playability,” Eurogamer notes. “Throughout our tests, Sony’s last-gen machine runs with no tearing at all, and yet still manages to consistently best both Xbox machines in frame-rate, both old and new.”

The analysis goes into greater detail about the games’ performance. The PlayStation 4 edition of the bundle was not evaluated.

In short, despite the increased resolution, it would appear that very little work was done bringing the game to the new console. Prototype 2 was the last game for its developing studio, Radical Entertainment, which had its staff reduced dramatically after the game’s release as Activision announced the studio would no longer develop its own games going forward.

The bundle sells for $49.99 for both PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. Individual versions of the games for those consoles will be offered beginning Aug. 11, Activision says.