A world of change

With manufacturers rolling out 3-D television sets, the promise of videogames that transport players into deeply immersive 3-D worlds is inching closer to reality.

Emphasis on the inching. The burden of 3-D glasses, the cost of a brand-new 3-D TV, the paucity of programming — all the reasons that adoption of 3-D television will be slow as molasses also apply to games. But there’s one more treacly trap: Creating compelling games that drive players to buy expensive new 3-D setups.

Designers say it’s easy to drop 3-D into an existing game, but that’s where the work begins. As a result, it could be quite a while before consoles get their Avatar — a blockbuster title that fundamentally changes gamers’ experience and expectations in the same way James Cameron’s sci-fi smash has for movies.

“Since so many games are built on 3-D engines, run on ever-more-powerful machines and are displayed in HD, it’s becoming easy to make them stereoscopic,” said game designer Heather Kelley in an e-mail interview with Wired.com. Still, “stereoscopy is almost always just an enhancement to the image and the sense of ‘immersion,’ rather than a true game-changer,” she said.

To create a killer game that makes 3-D a must, designers need to start from the bottom up.

“I think you have to design for stereoscopy, even if it’s just for a superficial spectacle that in no way affects the gameplay,” said Fez designer Phil Fish in an e-mail. “Even just getting the ‘wow’ factor right is going to mean changing the way we do a lot of things.”

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At this year’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, 3-D television sets were the hottest topic. Most every major manufacturer, from Sony to Samsung, showed new 3-D televisions that work with special glasses to bring a high-quality stereoscopic image right into your living room.

Sony made PlayStation 3 a big part of its pitch, promising lots of 3-D game content. But despite all the hype, some say that mass market 3-D gaming remains a long way off.

“It will take a few years to get broad penetration of 3-D displays, and the burden of wearing glasses will limit penetration,” said Wedbush Morgan Securities analyst Michael Pachter in an e-mail interview. “Games will probably have 3-D built in, but it won’t be a huge selling feature for at least five years, if not longer.”

Console makers have varying takes on the viability of 3-D gaming. John Koller, director of PlayStation hardware marketing for Sony, said his company is committed to publishing many 3-D titles in late 2010 and in 2011. “We’ll be providing enough of a game lineup to make it mass-market,” he said.

Microsoft is less enthusiastic about the near-term potential of 3-D. Aaron Greenberg, director of project management for Xbox, said that while the Xbox 360 supports 3-D display, it is “up to developers” whether they want to produce 3-D games.

“There’s a tiny, tiny, microscopic number of consumers that are invested in buying 3-D TVs and that I think will do so any time in the near future,” said Greenberg. “If people want to make one of those games, they’re obviously welcome to … but that market is relatively small because of the investment needed.”