More Promotion Needed to Spur 3D Game Demand, Conference Is Told

UNIVERSAL CITY, Calif. -- Hollywood has done a strong job of making consumers interested in 3D, helped by the popularity of Avatar, but the game industry needs to do a better job of promoting 3D gaming and educating consumers about the technology, speakers said at the 3D Gaming Summit Wednesday.

We're “at the tipping point” for 3D stereoscopic gaming to make headway, said Phil Eisler, general manager of 3D Vision at Nvidia. Hollywood has helped drive demand for the technology, 3D game hardware is getting better, faster and cheaper, the PS3 will be getting a firmware update by Sony for 3D this year, and the first 3D TVs are shipping, he said. “The Avatar effect has been huge,” and the movie showed how good 3D can be “when it’s done correctly,” he told the conference.

Analysts think 3 million 3D TVs will be sold this year and 40 percent of all TVs sold will be 3D models in five years, Eisler said. Twenty stereoscopic games will be released this year, along with more than 10 Blu-ray movies, and there will be two or three 3D-dedicated TV channels, he said. More than 425 computer games now support 3D using Nvidia’s driver software solution, he said. Also, more than 100,000 3D-capable PCs have been sold globally, and since the release of Avatar “that is growing very quickly,” he said. More than 1 million such PCs will be available by early 2011, he projected.

But while Hollywood has done a great job of promoting 3D to consumers, more needs to be done by game companies, Eisler said. To promote 3D, Nvidia has done in-store retail demonstrations at Fry’s, bundled games in with its 3D Vision kit that also includes a pair of active shutter glasses, and it’s done joint advertising, he said.

A survey of 1,400 U.S. consumers 12-65 years old by research company Interpret showed that the game industry and even the home entertainment divisions of Hollywood studios need to do a lot more education about 3D to consumers, who are quite confused, said Michael Cai, its vice president of videogames. And the need for special glasses continues to be an obstacle for the industry, he said.

Only about 20 percent of the consumers polled weren’t aware of 3D movies, but more than 60 percent were not aware of 3D Blu-ray, said Cai. A coordinated industry-wide consumer education effort is needed, he said. Only about 50 percent of U.S. consumers play games, but those who do tended to be aware of or had a positive reaction to 3D games, he said. Sixty-two percent of those polled were “extremely satisfied” with watching a 3D theatrical movie, while 57 percent said the same thing about watching a Blu-ray movie in 3D, 48 percent said that about watching 3D on a TV, and 50 percent said that about playing a 3D game, he said.

What was “really troubling” for the industry was that many consumers polled didn’t know what glasses could be used to watch 3D on any given TV, Cai said. Twenty-eight percent said most glasses would work on 3D TVs made by any manufacturer, when in fact some TVs will only support active shutter glasses and some only passive shutter glasses -- something only 10 percent were aware of, he said. Sixty-two percent said they didn’t know. Fifteen percent incorrectly said special glasses would enable them to view 3D images correctly on a 2D set, vs. 29 percent who said that wouldn’t work and 56 percent who said they didn’t know, he said. Seventy-seven percent said they didn’t know that the coming PS3 firmware update will allow the console to play 3D games. When told about the update, PS3 purchase interest among consumers polled rose moderately, he said.

The most frequent reason cited for why consumers polled wouldn’t buy a 3D TV was that they are too expensive, Cai said. Seventy-four percent of respondents said that. The need for special glasses came in No. 2, with about 43 percent citing that, vs. 30 percent who said they wanted to wait until early bugs were worked out, he said. Similarly, the need to wear special glasses was the No. 1 3D gaming dislike among respondents, with 37 percent citing that, he said. Twenty-eight percent said they didn’t dislike anything about 3D gaming, while 23 percent said they got headaches from playing 3D games, 19 percent said it strained their eyes, 16 percent said it made them dizzy, and 12 percent said it distracted them from gameplay.

There’s “some confusion” among consumers now, for sure, Nvidia’s Eisler told Consumer Electronics Daily. But he said, “Once we clear up the confusion” there is demand among consumers for 3D gaming. While some industry observers believe autostereoscopic 3D is needed to stimulate demand for 3D games, he said there’s “a lot of tradeoffs” with the glasses-free solution. “Right now, you get one-ninth the resolution” with that solution, he said. That makes it adequate for signs, but not large-screen TVs, he said. Once most consumers try the glasses, they tend to not have a problem with them, he said.

Nintendo has shown little interest in making 3D Wii games, although it recently said it will ship the “3DS” handheld system using a glasses-free solution (CED March 24 p1). The company has cited the need for glasses as the main reason why it didn’t plan 3D Wii games. But Eisler said Nintendo would have to wait for the next console cycle to add 3D support anyway because the console doesn’t have adequate horsepower to handle most 3D games.

Microsoft has been noticeably silent on 3D games for the Xbox 360, Eisler said. It'll be a challenge for that system to run many 3D games also, and it'll even be a challenge for Sony on the PS3 in at least some cases, he said. “I think they'll have to make some trade-offs in terms of resolution,” for one thing, he said.

Of the health concerns that were recently raised about 3D TVs, Eisler said there is some muscle strain that’s possible from watching 3D for an extended period of time, but there’s “still more research that needs to be done.” Some have said there can even be “health benefits” to watching 3D, in the case of people with lazy eyes, for example, he said.