Stereoscopic 3D has been popping up in our televisions, blu-rays and video games at a semi-rapid pace over the past year or so. Despite an increasing number of companies supporting the technology, Microsoft has been very lukewarm on the idea of 3D gaming. Their ‘wait and see’ approach is likely the best angle from a business perspective, especially considering how few people actually have access to it, but it seems like the tides are about to change in the Xbox camp.
Not a word was spoken from Microsoft when Call of Duty: Black Ops hit the Xbox 360 with 3D support. The Enslaved expansion, ‘Pigsy’s Perfect 10′ that also utilized 3D technology on the 360 received similar acknowledgment. To be fair, Microsoft has never said that they have no plans to use 3D in gaming and if memory serves they even announced an Xbox 360/LG 3D TV bundle a while back. But aside from that, they’ve done nothing to promote the products on their console that feature it.
I question if the winds are changing direction because of Major Nelson’s most recent blog post about some of the pre-GDC announcements that were just made. 3D was right in the mix for a couple of different products, starting with Crysis 2. Major Nelson made a point to say that Crysis 2 looks fantastic in either HD or 3D. Further down the post, he also pointed out that ‘The Dishwasher: Vampire Smile’ (an Xbox 360 exclusive) will also support 3D. Not only that, but he emboldened the section of the post that mentioned 3D.
Finally, when announcing that Fable III would be heading to the PC, he also emphasized the 3D support for that title as well. Granted, he mentioned nothing of 3D support for Fable III on the 360 but it’s still a game that’s being developed by a Microsoft-owned studio.
There’s a distinct probability that I’m just reading too much in to these posts. I find it highly unlikely that we’re about see every Xbox 360 exclusive support 3D but the mere fact that they’re acknowledging the technology that so many other hardware manufacturers and game developers have gotten behind, says something. If nothing else, they may just be putting themselves in the best position to succeed regardless of how well the third dimension is doing at retail. Either way, it will be interesting to see how they handle things going forward and what other products they produce that employ it.
See the original post here: http://www.thesixthaxis.com/2011/02/26/is-microsoft-ready-to-embrace-3d/
