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LOS ANGELES
- After taking over the big screen, 3-D is poised to hit
the small screen via video games.
Sony Corp.
and
Nintendo Co.
presented dueling versions of 3-D gaming Tuesday at the
opening of the annual Electronic Entertainment Expo in
Los Angeles
, where attendance is expected to reach 45,000.
Both
companies are investing heavily in 3-D video game
technology in order to drive the next wave of consumer
spending in an industry that generates roughly
$45 billion
in sales worldwide.
Sony
showed off a number of game titles it hopes will prompt
players to don glasses and enter the third dimension,
including "Gran Turismo 5," a much-anticipated
racing game debuting
Nov. 2
, and "Killzone 3," an adrenaline-soaked
shooting game due out in February.
The
company recently sent out a software update to 35
million PlayStation 3 game consoles to enable the device
to process stereoscopic 3-D graphics, and a handful of
downloadable titles are already available in 3-D,
including "Super Stardust" and "Wipe Out
HD."
As a
company,
Sony
has made 3-D a priority. Its consumer electronics
division is rolling out 3-D Bravia television sets,
professional broadcast 3-D cameras capable of capturing
3-D video and 3-D movie projectors.
Sony Pictures
, its movie studio, debuted a 3-D film, "Cloudy
with a Chance of Meatballs" and will be releasing
"Resident Evil: Afterlife" in 3-D later this
year.
"It's
a future that
Sony
will lead,"
Sony
executive
Kazuo Hirai
predicted.
But not
if
Nintendo
has its way.
Nintendo
announced agreements with
Warner Bros
.,
Walt Disney Co.
and
DreamWorks
to provide "stereoscopic" 3-D movies to its
upcoming 3DS handheld game console.
Nintendo
did not list movie titles, but a demonstration of the
console showed a trailer of "Tangled,"
Disney's
adaptation of the classic Rapunzel fairy tale. The movie
is set for release
Nov. 24
.
The 3DS,
unlike
Sony's
3-D games, requires no glasses, an advantage
Nintendo
hammered home at its Tuesday news conference at the
Nokia Theatre.
"Man!
Those glasses!"
Nintendo
of America President
Reggie Fils-Aime
exclaimed in mock horror.
In an
effect similar to lenticular images, the
Nintendo
3DS projects an illusion of three dimensions on its
3.5-inch screen. The result is a picture comparable to
3-D with glasses. To perceive the effect, however,
viewers must be directly in front of the screen.
Nintendo
said it expected to ship the 3DS sometime during its
current fiscal year ending
March 31
, but
Nintendo
President
Satoru Iwata
declined to say whether the console would be on store
shelves in time for the holidays.
The 3DS
is similar to the current DS console, except that the
top 3.5-inch screen will display 3-D images while the
bottom, slightly larger display is a touch screen.
Equipped
with three cameras (two on the outside casing), the DS
lets players take 3-D pictures and share them with other
3DS owners via a Wi-Fi Internet connection. A slider
lets viewers adjust the extent of the 3-D effect,
including the ability to turn off the 3-D feature
entirely.
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