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Sony Hints at Future 3D Gaming
Every attendee’s seat at Sony’s CES keynote conference had a pair of Real-D Cinema 3D glasses on it. It was just one example of Sony’s continual associations with the burgeoning technology throughout its visit to Las Vegas.
When it came to the idea of 3D gaming, Sony was implicit but never explicit. During his keynote, Sony CEO Sir Howard Stringer showed attendees a still from Gran Turismo 5, rendered in 3D. "You've never seen the game like that," he claimed.
But there was no solid strategy laid out for 3D gaming. On Sony’s show floor at CES, a selection of games had been demonstrated on the firm's 3D Bravia displays. Racing games, such as MotorStorm, Gran Turismo 5 Prologue and Wipeout HD, were used as examples of how 3D technology can be used to enhance the gameplay experience, with Sony representatives explaining that driving games in particular can benefit from an enhanced level of depth perception.
The promise shown was somewhat curbed by Sony’s reluctance to reveal anything about the technology behind the demonstrations. Sony wouldn't say how the 3D impression was achieved; "don't get caught up with specs," a Sony representative told ArsTechnica "We're not going to talk about specifications. This is just a look at what 3D could look like if Sony decided to move in this direction."
These games were unplayable on the show floor, though there are reports that Sony has playable versions ready to be sampled.
Sony’s allusions to 3D gaming were certainly not as unequivocal as the company’s push for 3D movies. Back at the press conference, John Lasseter – chief creative officer of Pixar and Disney Animation Studios – claimed that Pixar is already working on 3D movies for the Blu-ray format, while the group is remastering both Toy Story and Toy Story 2 in 3D for cinema releases during the summer.
Source: Gamespot, ArsTechnica, Kotaku.
Image courtesy of Ars Technica.
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Well, I certainly hope all console makers will explore this concept further and finally release something for consumers. I'm actually quite convinced it will enhance the gaming experience... it does a good job at enhancing movies and well - with HD, the quality has gone up quite a bit.
Ever since James Cameron announced he was going to work on a 3D movie (Avatar ...and later on Battle Angel) a few years ago, a lot of producers in Hollywood have actually jumped on that particular band wagon... including the people at Pixar and Lucasfilm.
For those who hate the glasses... you'll have to buy something like that LG monitor (M4200D-BNC) that's out there. Never seen the thing in action but they claim it's "true 3D" and so on. Regardless of this though, you're going to need an expensive TV set to actually see proper 3D - whether it's by using the autostereoscopic technique or by using glasses.
Nice to see the XBOX faithful ready and willing to take a giant crap on something that hasn't come straight from anus of the Church of the Latter Day Gates.
I am already wearing glasses, I suppose other people do the same. Wearing glasses over glasses is either very uncomfortable, or looks rather bulky and silly. On top of that, it's a questionable technical upgrade people will have to buy at prohibitive prices in order to maximize profits. To round it off, headtracking works and feels better from the gamer's perspective. Sure, for big presentation with all the press present it won't work, but will you really buy 3D goggles for every member of the family?
Congratulations Sony on getting the assembled geeky and technical press impressed, but now throw it away already. And stop beating GT5, shouldn't that be a dead horse by now?
Like the Sony rep said:
We're not going to talk about specifications. This is just a look at what 3D could look like if Sony decided to move in this direction
Translation:
We just wanted to remind you that 3D cinema is, in fact, three dimensional. We know it exists and are not afraid to ignore it until such a time where urgent jumping on a bandwagon is necessary.
I'm always going to remain sceptical over 3D gaming such as this. I'm just not convinced it will sufficiently enhance a gaming experience without being gimmicky.
Prove me wrong Sony. (And yes, before anyone comments on that, Sony's main objective for 2009 is to prove Jacob Barker wrong. Get over it.)
How exciting, Sony has demoed this sort of thing before using the EyeToy as a head tracker and using no glasses and I'd hope that they'd use that system rather than a system that used glasses if that is the direction they'd like to take us in future.