PS3 manufacturer offering 3D training to external studios
Sony is assembling an arsenal of over fifty 3D games in its new assault on the home console market – with over twenty of those titles being built internally.
Ahead of his ‘3D gaming’ keynote at this week’s Develop in Liverpool conference, SCEE studio director Mick Hocking said he will demonstrate the sheer volume of games already embracing stereoscopic technology.
“We’re applying 3D to more than 20 internal games at Sony,” he told Develop.
“It’s a very positive thing to see the great level of interest in 3D from our development studios.”
Hocking emphasised that a growing number of external studios are embracing 3D gaming, who together are doubling Sony’s 3D games amoury.
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“Overall we have more than fifty titles currently being converted into 3D, and this number if growing fast,” he said in an exclusive interview with Develop.
“Some of them are massive names. That’s a really, really good sign that the industry is behind our unique message that 3D is a key element in the future of home consoles.”
He said the growing interest from external studios was due to Sony’s own proactive engagement with the industry.
“We’re actively talking to developers and publishers, and we’re also offering training to them to help them get up to speed with 3D,” he said.
“3D isn’t just about adding depth to a picture – developers need to know how to get the very best out of the technology on PS3 and we’ll ensure that they do.”
Sony’s consultation with external and internal studios, said Hocking, goes beyond training on adding depth. He said there’s also scope to train developers on being playful with the tech.
“Not only make it technically correct,” he said, “but also to be more inventive with it, how to get the most creatively from it for their particular type of game.
“One great example is in Killzone 3, when you're playing in 3D, where the player has to plant an explosive charge on the wall.
“When they do, the charge comes out of the screen and looks like it’s in the room with you, and honestly it feels like an explosive charge has been placed on your TV. It’s
amazing!”
Sony launched its 3D games service earlier in the year – via a firmware update on the PS3 along with selling 3DTVs accompanied with stereoscopic glasses.
Hocking said his firm wants to capture the emerging technology as it becomes more of a standard across all entertainment mediums.
“Interest in 3D is growing fast,” he said, “and many different industries are investing heavily in 3D right now. The 3D market is going to continue to grow with film, TV, websites and games all set to embrace the technology.
“Once people see the range of amazing content that 3D offers, they’ll make the decision to buy a 3D TV set.”
[Image: PS3Maven]
3D is awesome Call of Duty: Black Ops in 3D is mindblowing and specially when i'm playing on my xbox360 lol.
Ps3 is the only console that's capable of true stereoscopic 3d. Saying the Xbox 360 is able to do 3d is saying that the original Nintendo from 1985 is able to do 3d because they are able to do old 3d technology and not true stereoscopic 3d with activitie shutter glasses.
Xbl/psn- dylantalon
played both GT5 and KZ3 in 3D at the eurpgamerexpo in Sept, was not impressed by either, in fact i was frankly disappointed. although the 3D effect was obvious the two images were not properly overlayed for either of them. i'm willing to accept the the config may have been fruity and i do wear glasses anyway so that may have skewed the image, but either way the execution was poor and after about 3 laps on GT5 the effect was barely noticable (barring the mismatched images) and it was the same for the guy i was there with.
that's not to say it won't improve in time but given the current entry price i am willing to forego the experience.
in all honesty i would prefer it if you had two screens in the glasses that displayed the two images without even needing a tv screen, but that's probably even further off (fast forward to a future where contact lenses will do the job = ACES!!!)
NIIICE , i already have the TV and GT5 and Avatar and Motorstorm wich is great in 3D
@dylantalon :
Actually the NES was perfectly able to do stereoscopic 3D, in 1987 you could play Highway Star and other games with its Famicom 3D shutter glasses. That was also the case for the Vectrex (3D Imager), the Master System (SegaScope) and the Amiga (X-Specs). Stereo 3D on consoles is nothing new, it started in 1983 with the TomyTronic 3D games.
@dylantalon it doesn't matter whether it's polarised, colour filtered, parrallax-barrier-ed, or active-shuttered - what matters is whether the console can effectively render the two views in a time similar rate to rendering the one view required for 2D - that is the measure of whether it's capable of 3d.
Who cares? I am one of those people who gets massive headaches from watching 3D movies. Scientists have determined that it ONLY happens to people with superior intellects.
It's all great viewing everything in dazzling 3D and beautiful graphics, but I'd rather play a fun game on Atari than a rubbish one in 3D.
I think they should focus on getting the games right first, improving the graphics second.
