Following reports on the internet that claimed Bungie’s Halo 3 was running at a slightly lower resolution than the conventional 720p, the developer has issued a statement clarifying the tech behind its Xbox 360 masterpiece.

Although confirming on its website that the game does indeed run at 1152x640 (compared to the usual hi-def resolution of 1280x720) it added that a range of other technical touches more than make up for it.

“The ability to display a full range of HDR, combined with our advanced lighting, material and postprocessing engine, gives our scenes, large and small, a compelling, convincing and ultimately 'real' feeling, and at a steady and smooth frame rate, which in the end was far more important to us than the ability to display a few extra pixels,” Bungie stated.

“If you do a comparison shot between the native 1152x640 image and the scaled 1280x720, it's practically impossible to discern the difference. We would ignore it entirely were it not for the Internet's propensity for drama where none exists.

“In fact the reason we haven't mentioned this before in weekly updates, is the simple fact that it would have distracted conversation away from more important aspects of the game, and given tinfoil hats some new gristle to chew on as they catalogued their toenail clippings."