Sony to be more selective about their use of 3D

By: Moses Abaortae

  |   August 23rd, 2012   |  

Uncategorized

It seems that PlayStation titles will no longer have the 3D tagged slapped across the cover unless it “makes sense” to have it implemented there but Jim Ryan, the CEO of PlayStation Europe, also adds it’s not the end of the company’s use of 3D in gaming.

There was a time, a few years ago, where Sony was all about 3D technology. Cameras, televisions and video games were all set to get the 3D treatment.

The PlayStation 3 received a firmware update which made it 3D-ready but the major barrier to entry for an overwhelming majority of consumers was the pricing factor related to the 3D TVs, cameras and accessories.

Sales on the 3D front were slow and Sony even introduced their PlayStation 3D TV, priced at just $400 at launch, in order to make the technology more accessible. At this point the price has been halved and is sold at $199.

Any PlayStation 3 gamer will have noticed the 3D tag on the cover of nearly every game released over the past year with very few living up to the full potential of what was promised.

That seems to be something that Sony has caught on to recently and Jim Ryan, the CEO of PlayStation Europe, made the following promise to consumers.

“Where it makes sense, 3D technology will be included into our games.”

There was a real lack of 3D promotion during both Sony’s E3 Press Conference as well as the Gamescom conference but Ryan believes that it does mean the technology is dead.

“I wouldn’t read too much into its omission.” Before continuing, “We spoke about it at E3 two years ago and everyone put their glasses on for the first time, and the next year we did the same and everyone did it again. Y’know, there comes a time when you don’t need to talk about it anymore.”

Ryan reiterated his earlier stance, “Don’t’ read into the fact too much that we haven’t announced anything about 3D.”

However, one has to consider the next generation of gaming consoles and how it is set to expand on the current generation and bring in new features. Sony could very well be thinking about virtual reality and 3D playing a major role.

All of this is speculation at this point in time and many gamers will agree that they will appreciate the 3D feature in their games to hold a bit more merit than it does at the moment.

But what about the readers; will they invest in a 3D set up if the pricing is lower or is it something that they think is doomed to fail no matter how hard Sony try to sell it as the next big thing or an integral part of gaming in the future? Let us know in the comments section below.