14 DAY TRIAL // Despite the significant push that took place last year, three-dimensional gaming has failed to capture the imagination of gamers and at least one major video game company plans to let players dictate how it is used in the future.
Feral Gara, who is leading the United Kingdom division of Sony, has told Eurogamer that, “Consumers decide how relevant it is. It’s fair to say consumers have decided it’s not hugely important at this time. It’s a capability we’ve got. It may have a bigger life a little further down the line. It’s great we can do it. It doesn’t seem to be the most powerful USP at the moment, so you’ve seen us shift our effort onto fresh new exciting IP.”
He added, “I’m certainly really pleased to see the strength of that as we look into next year. We’ve seen a resurgence really with the strength of the output from the studio network.”
Starting with the second half of 2010, Sony began a big push for three-dimensional games, but the expensive equipment required to experience it and the limited range of games that supported the new concept meant that it failed to get big support from the video game world.
Since then, Nintendo embraced the same idea in a very different way with the 3DS handheld, which offers three-dimensional content without asking the player to use glasses.
The Sony leader has not said whether 3D capabilities would be one of the core features of the upcoming PlayStation 4, as some rumors have suggested.
The company has not yet announced official plans for the new generation of home devices, but sources inside Sony have suggested that the hardware might include better motion tracking, options for digital distribution and support for 3D.
Nintendo will be the first company to launch a next-gen console, with the Wii U.