Sony: slow 3D uptake 'not a concern'

Sony does not appear to be worried about slow uptake of 3D TV and 3D games, according to comments from a Sony Computer Entertainment exec this week.

According to Sony 3D gaming is so easy for its games creators to achieve that it will continue to produce stereoscopic 3D versions of PS3 games regardless of demand levels.

"It's certainly not a concern for us on the game side, the major reason being it's not like when we're adding 3D features to a game, it's not a significant overhead for us," Simon Benson, SCEE's senior development manager and 3D chief, told GI.biz this week.

"It's not like we have to justify being able to sell millions more games because of it, it's just another feature of the game."

Games are cheaper than 3D movies

Benson added: "The developers that we've worked with adding 3D features to the games, it's typically been done through passion of the development teams and interest of the designers to deliver new experiences.

"It's not often about the financial side of things. Because it isn't a huge overhead. It's not like in 3D live production where someone has got to make the decision about hiring cameras that cost twice as much and doing post processing that costs ten times more and it's a significant overhead, there you really have to look at the numbers.

"What we're talking about here is, in some cases we've had titles where 3D has been half a per cent of overhead. It can literally be the render programmer spending a couple of weeks manipulating it.

"Particularly if a game already has split screen in it, just take that mode of the game and re-author it to deliver really high quality 3D. So often it's the case of it doesn't even hit the radar of whether we should or shouldn't, it can just be done."