Sony: Consumers have decided 3D is not "hugely important"

Platform holder Sony has admitted that consumers have effectively killed off the 3D gaming revolution.

Consumers decide how relevant it is,” SCE UK boss Fergal Gara told Eurogamer. 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. 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.”

It’s certainly a stark change of tact for the company having spent years trying to convince consumers that 3D would be the next big thing.

In 2009 chief exec Sir Howard Stringer famously claimed that 3D TVs would be in every home” by the end of 2010.

The following year the company predicted that 3D would revolutionise gaming, dubbing it as a significant long-term strategy” with SCEE president Andrew House later predicting that 3D would experience a swifter uptake than HD.

And it’s perhaps no surprise that it’s the need for glasses that has eventually come back to haunt the technology. Indeed, detractors have since the beginning warned that the need for glasses would ultimately prove to be 3D’s downfall.

Whether you look at movies or games, wearing the glasses and consuming 3D in that way in the home isn’t hugely popular,” Gara admitted. That’s just a fact. I haven’t read detailed research on it, but the glasses will certainly be a big part of the hassle factor.

I also think there’s a bit of a difference between the highly focused viewing and the more casual viewing. In the home people tune in and tune out a bit, and doing that with glasses on and glancing at your tablet or pausing for a bit, compared to the cinema experience which is a solely focused experience, you know there is a difference emerging there.”