Stereoscopic 3D has been popping up in our televisions, blu-rays and video games at a semi-rapid pace over the past year or so. Despite an increasing number of companies supporting the technology, Microsoft has been very lukewarm on the idea of 3D gaming. Their ‘wait and see’ approach is likely the best angle from a business perspective, especially considering how few people actually have access to it, but it seems like the tides are about to change in the Xbox camp.
Not a word was spoken from Microsoft when Call of Duty: Black Ops hit the Xbox 360 with 3D support. The Enslaved expansion, ‘Pigsy’s Perfect 10’ that also utilized 3D technology on the 360 received similar acknowledgment. To be fair, Microsoft has never said that they have no plans to use 3D in gaming and if memory serves they even announced an Xbox 360/LG 3D TV bundle a while back. But aside from that, they’ve done nothing to promote the products on their console that feature it.
I question if the winds are changing direction because of Major Nelson’s most recent blog post about some of the pre-GDC announcements that were just made. 3D was right in the mix for a couple of different products, starting with Crysis 2. Major Nelson made a point to say that Crysis 2 looks fantastic in either HD or 3D. Further down the post, he also pointed out that ‘The Dishwasher: Vampire Smile’ (an Xbox 360 exclusive) will also support 3D. Not only that, but he emboldened the section of the post that mentioned 3D.
Finally, when announcing that Fable III would be heading to the PC, he also emphasized the 3D support for that title as well. Granted, he mentioned nothing of 3D support for Fable III on the 360 but it’s still a game that’s being developed by a Microsoft-owned studio.
There’s a distinct probability that I’m just reading too much in to these posts. I find it highly unlikely that we’re about see every Xbox 360 exclusive support 3D but the mere fact that they’re acknowledging the technology that so many other hardware manufacturers and game developers have gotten behind, says something. If nothing else, they may just be putting themselves in the best position to succeed regardless of how well the third dimension is doing at retail. Either way, it will be interesting to see how they handle things going forward and what other products they produce that employ it.
clashcityrocker
Xbox has old HDMI 1.1 and in now way can handle the bandwidth needed for proper 3D.
PS3 has a hybrid HDMI 1.3/1.4 implementation (it supports the Bandwidth of HDMI 1.4 but he features of HDMI 1.3), which is why it CAN do proper 3D.
Deathbrin
Heh, i’m going to ask just one thing: what do you mean by “proper 3D” :)
Matt W [Echo]
I was wondering the same thing. I’d love to have Sony (or anyone else) come out and clarify the specific types of 3D and how they work.
My biggest experiences have been with Motorstorm: Pacific Rift 3D, Killzone 3 and Black Ops. The 3D effect was very similar in all of them. And actually, the 360 version of Black Ops produced a much nicer 3D effect than the PS3 version did.
Oddly enough, the game I’ve been the most impressed with in 3D is Stardust. :-)
Armonster9000
I’m not sure if I’M ready for 3D. I think it is cool and all, but I’d rather have game developers put more effort into in-game graphics than 3D itself!
Awayze
How would Xbox 360 do 3D when most of Xbox’s are 1.1 and new ones have 1.2, right?
How would they fit 3D onto a 9GB DVD without compromising length of story mode of the games etc. This is why making games on the Xbox is a bad move.