3D PC gaming
Back to gaming, Blitz are of course aware that there are already a number of 3D PC gaming peripherals and 'solutions' on the market from the likes of Nvidia, with 3D monitors also on the horizon for the mass market.
"You can get glasses and then get patches that give your PC games the illusion of depth," notes Oliver. But the key problem here is that these games have not been originally designed to be played in 3D. It is little more than a clever trick. An illusion which adds little, if anything, to the gameplay.
"Games will lead 3D into the home," says Andrew Oliver, quoting Tinseltown mogul Jeffrey Katzenberg. "3D PC gaming is niche, imperfect, not mass market."
TV companies are always looking to add features to their products and, in Oliver's opinion at least, 3D gaming is going to give them the must-have content to drive the next major feature-leap in the TV industry. Yep, you guessed it. 3D!
"The likes of Samsung and Mitsubishi have already sold over two million 3D TVs in the US," says Oliver. But there is a problem. "They cannot currently promote the fact that their TVs are 3D-enabled because there is no 3D content."
"Watch out at CES [2010] though. Every major manufacturer will be promoting their 3D TVs – ironically to tie in with the launch of Avatar."
Console power issues and the transitional phase
So Blitz is not (that) interested in the PC market for 3D. It wants to make a full frontal assault on our mass market. It wants its games – Invincible Tiger and whatever else is coming up later in 2009 and beyond – to persuade us to shell out for a new 3D-enabled TV.
The only current gen console on the market not capable of running Blitz's 3D games is the Nintendo Wii, otherwise, Oliver argues (despite some previous opposition from other devs) "consoles are capable or 3D...3D-gaming can now go mainstream."
The 3D standard is utilising HDMI (hence, no Wii compatibility) and the only technical requirements are that 3D games have to run at 60 frames per second in 1080 high definition to maintain the illusion of depth on the screen. Which is great news for gamers, of course – as it means 3D games will (in theory) be fast flowing, rendered in glorious high res.
"The games need to be rendered twice at full HD... which is a damn lot of pixels to shift," explains Oliver. "And we have to face the fact that only one per cent of the market right now is going to be able to play [Invincible Tiger]. But it works beautifully as a 2D game. It [the market for 3D] is going to be like this for some time."
Currently there are lots of different standards of TVs (and 3D glasses) and Oliver admits to having bought all of them (TechRadar can attest to this, having recently visited the company's offices up in Leamington). "Hey, I like new stuff. I collect stuff. I'm a tech geek!" jokes Oliver.
