3D Is The New Stereo?

With James Cameron’s Avatar: The Game releasing at the end of this week, Ubisoft have understandably been out and about talking to anyone who will listen.  Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the game is something that very few of us will be able to experience.

Avatar is the first console title developed from the ground up to use the new 3D-capable displays which herald the beginning of the end for watching 3D TV while wearing cardboard-and-sweet-wrapper anaglyphic glasses.  Though with many of us having recently bought HD TVs it may be a while before we can be convinced to upgrade again to 3D-capable ones.

Given that 3D is all about adding depth and, at least in theory, immersion to the pictures we watch it was curious to read about a Ubisoft representative comparing it a 2D analogue audio technology that dates from the 1970s.  Speaking to the Financial Post the chief executive of Ubisoft’s Montreal subsidiary,Yannis Mallat, said

3D is to pictures what Dolby Stereo was to sound.  No one wants to go back to mono.

Surely he has picked the wrong audio technology for comparison?  Personally I found the step up to discreet channel surround, Dolby Digital 5.1 et al, to be a much more immersive advance with its creation of a 3D sound field.  Once you have heard the gun battle outside the bank rage around you while watching Heat or heard zombies charging up behind you in Left 4 Dead you will not want to go back to stereo.