Sony PS3 to Bring 3-D Gaming to Consumers this Year

The 3-D movement has some major issues. For one, there isn't any content, and secondly it's a difficult task to convince consumers that they'll need to shell out around $100 in order for each member of their family to enjoy 3-D with the required shutter glasses. Attempting to address both issues, Sony announced that it would be rolling out three reworked titles from its Playstation 3 store next month - at least in Japan to start. This will correspond to the release of 3-D Bravia televisions and give consumers something with which to try out their new 3-D sets with.

Sony has over 35 million PS3 game consoles in the market - that's a huge installed base to which 3-D can be marketed and sold. As we've pointed out before, gaming seems largely poised for 3-D as opposed to theatrical films, for which there is a great dearth of content. In April, Sony put out a firmware update for the PS3 that enabled the playback of new 3-D video games. Starting June 10th when Sony’s 3-D televisions go on sale in Japan, the first four 3-D titles for the PS3 will be available for download from the PlayStation Store. The games will only be available in Japan at first with the U.S. and other markets expected to follow shortly.

The first four titles are existing games converted into 3-D, as opposed to original 3-D titles. The ones Sony is starting with are "Mr. Pain," "Star Strike HD," "WipEout HD" and "MotorStorm2" - the last being a free demo. In Japan, the games will be on sale for between (approximately) $9 and $20. While this is a good start, what is more tempting is the thought that titles like Gears of War 3 (coming in 2011) being released as full-on 3-D titles. The industry may also experiment with re-issuing existing games in 3-D since our understanding is that the conversion of these titles isn't terribly difficult (games are essentially 3-D and playing back on hardware (in the case of the PS3) that can support some form of 3-D output.

While 3-D seems a stretch for the home theater, we're keeping an active eye on its emergence in teh agming market, where we're guessing individuals will find no problem slapping on a pair of shutter glasses and immersing themselves in the 3-D realm.