Nintendo started the mainstream push into glasses free (autostereoscopic) 3D gaming with its Nintendo 3DS system earlier this year. While sales were decent for the device, the price point, hardcore focus and lack of killer app games have failed to replicate the mainstream success of Nintendo DSi. But a strong E3 with top-tier 3D games like the just-released Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D and the upcoming Kid Icarus Uprising, Mario Kart 3D, Luigi’s Mansion 3D, Tekken 3D and Super Mario 3D; should help attract a broader audience to the device, especially once Nintendo offers a price cut.
That price drop might come sooner than later, thanks to the launch of Sprint’s HTC EVO 3D. The first glasses free 3D phone for the U.S. retails for $200, which is less than the Nintendo 3DS. And it offers a large selection of 3D games, which Sprint is already using to market the new device to early adopters (a strategy that Apple introduced with its iPhone and which most carriers now follow). Plus, later this summer, AT&T jumps into the 3D game space with the LG Thrill 4G. So Nintendo will be facing a marketing blitz from two of the largest carriers in the U.S. – and these are global phones, so other territories will also have gamers introduced to glasses free gaming and content.
I moderated a 3D Gaming panel at the 3D Entertainment Summit, part of CE Week in New York, where Samir El Agili, General Manager of Gameloft’s Americas Studios, said that these two phones are only the beginning. He said many additional 3D phones are in the works and will be released following these initial two summer launches. Gameloft has a half-dozen 3D games available for the EVO 3D like Asphalt 6, Let's Golf 2, and N.O.V.A 2: Near Orbit Vanguard Alliance. Gamers can access the Gameloft 3D Store directly from the new phone. The mobile game publisher is also making games for both the Thrill and Nintendo 3DS.
While some have called 3D phones gimmicky, these devices are already commonplace in Asia. And with an influx of new 3D phones entering the market this year, coupled with the Nintendo 3DS, Jim Cameron recently told me that he sees these glasses free devices as being key for the adoption of 3D TVs in the homes. He said autostereoscopic 3D games will be the entry level for most people to 3D. While the technology for big screen glasses free 3D is still further away, small devices like 3D phones and Nintendo 3DS will show off the technology.
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Also on my panel at the 3D Entertainment Summit was Carlos Angulo, product marketing manager at Vizio. Vizio is currently the leading U.S. HD TV maker and has shifted its focus to 3D passive TVs, including an amazing 65” Theater 3D Edge Lit, which was on display at CE Week running Electronic Arts’ Crysis 2 3D game on PlayStation 3. Angulo said that there’s a direct correlation between getting consumers introduced to 3D on new mobile devices and then building on that interest in the home with 3D TV offerings. Vizio is targeting gamers and the more mainstream audience with lower-priced 3D TV offerings, as well.
Even Sony Computer Entertainment America is capitalizing on Nintendo 3DS and the new 3D phones. Sony will ship its first PlayStation-branded 3D LCD, the 24-inch PlayStation 3D Display, this fall for $500 in a bundle that also includes 3D glasses, Insomniac Games’ Resistance 3, and an HDMI cable.
Despite the recent negative press focused on Hollywood summer 3D movies like Pirates of the Caribbean and Green Lantern failing to rake in huge box office, Cameron told me it’s here to stay – although Hollywood does need to clean up the rush of converting 2D movies into bad 3D movies, theaters need to offer better-lit 3D presentations, and pricing needs to be fixed.
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Outside of gaming, the biggest driver for 3D phones and TVs will be Hollywood movies. Both of the new 3D phones will allow consumers to access 3D movies. In fact, they’ll also allow people to make their own 3D videos and share them with friends on Youtube 3D. But watching Avatar, glasses free, on a mobile phone is now a reality. Just as those who own a Panasonic 3D TV can watch Cameron’s Oscar-winning film at home with 3D glasses -- the movie won’t be released to the masses until more 3D TVs are sold into the market.
So it’s looking like the 3D circle of success will rely on quality Hollywood 3D content to help propel people to watch glasses free 3D entertainment on new mobile phones, which then might encourage consumers to upgrade their home entertainment centers to one of the growing number of affordable passive 3D TVs in the market. And that’s just on the Hollywood side.
Ask anyone involved in 3D in any way, and they’ll point to quality gameplay experiences as the killer app to drive 3D on mobile devices or at home. Nintendo definitely has the edge there with Nintendo 3DS titles, but we’ve seen mobile developers like Gameloft push the envelope of 3D gaming (the new Ultimate Spider-Man: Total Mayhem game is very cool). And once people do gravitate to 3D at the home, there’s a huge library of quality 3D games from Sony for PlayStation 3 – a device that supports any type of 3D technology on the market.
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