PS3 to get 3D gaming?

Sony apparently plans to upgrade the PlayStation 3 with support for games running in stereoscopic 3D, according to a leaked presentation.Two bullet-points in one slide declare: “Release 3D games in line with Sony’s 3D strategy” and “All PS3 units will be firmware-upgradeable to 3D.” Another slide, headed “Preparation for 3D rollout in 2010″ cites the PS3 as a means of popularising 3D games.

The first stereoscopic 3D games are beginning to trickle onto the market, most notably Avatar (James Cameron’s film, developed alongside the game, was also made in 3D) and Blitz Arcade’s Invincible Tiger, published by Namco Bandai.

2010 will see an explosion in the number of stereoscopic 3D televisions in the shops – with consumer confusion one likely outcome, as there are several competing 3D TV technologies.

It is possible to make screens that provide a 3D effect without requiring glasses, although as these require each pixel to be duplicated and polarised, they will be very pricey. There will also be solutions which require the wearing of both passive and actively synched polarised glasses.

3D TVs also require ultra-high refresh rates (some even operate at 240Hz), due to them displaying one set of information for each eye.

The good thing about videogames is that once they have been encoded in 3D, they can be easily adjusted to work with all 3D display methods, so TV manufacturers – like Sony – see them as a prime means of popularising 3D TV. The PS3′s Cell chip is also known to be very well suited to streaming, encoding and decoding of video data, so a firmware update giving the PlayStation 3 native stereoscopic 3D support makes eminently good sense.

With broadcasters like Sky and the BBC checking out the technology and running pilot-schemes, 2010 is set to be the year of 3D TV.