EA CEO John Riccitiello has announced that Electronic Arts is planing to move away from stereo 3D games and go more towards social and online gaming. The reason he states in front of the company’s stockholders is that there are poor returns from these games as compared to other titles.

“We see really high returns in these markets and very poor returns focusing on 3D, so we are allocating our resources toward new innovations.”

“Frankly we have not seen a big uptake for 3D gaming. We have not seen a big uptake in 3D TVs in the home, at least not yet. We are not here trying to drive a market. We are here to react to what consumers are looking for.”

But don’t forget that in order to attract gamers you not only need to make a hit title game, but also ensure a proper stereoscopic 3D support, so that instead of gamers complaining all the time from very basic issues in stereo 3D mode they will be happy right from the start and spread the work to other fellow stereo 3D gamers about the game. This however is still a problem not only fro EA, but for most other game makers that want to implement stereoscopic 3D support and instead of attracting the stereo 3D gamers they are driving them away. Remember the fiasco that EA has with the hit title “Battlefield: Bad Company 2″ it was constantly being fixed in terms of stereo 3D support, but the new patches broke other things that worked properly with the older ones.

A more recent example with a hit game title that should’ve been 3D-ready right from the start, from another developer, is the game “The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings”. Instead of becoming a hit stereo 3D title it is getting a lot of bad feedback from gamers due to various issues in stereo 3D mode and patches for the game that are supposed to be fixing things are not doing what they should.

With such level of efforts (clearly not enough) from game developers to provide proper stereo 3D support and moving the focus from S3D PC gamers to the still not that much console 3D gamers I’m wondering what were game developers expecting. Probably the same thing that Hollywood wanted to do with 3D movie ticket sales, but you know, you cannot push higher sales of more expensive tickets for the 3D version of the movies and provide the viewers with crappy 2D to 3D conversion or bad quality movies and expect that to last forever. The entertainment industry should learn from their mistakes, but clearly they are not doing that and in the process they are hurting the 3D industry. Somebody has to drive the stereo 3D gaming market with a good example and not necessarily with the idea to make high profit in short time, but clearly this is not EA as apparently this has never been their intention.

Stereo 3D gamers are looking for quality games that work as they should in stereoscopic 3D mode and not for games that have a 3D logo and some kind of crappy stereo 3D support, because some game developer decided to profit a bit extra by advertising a game 3D-ready when it clearly is not. If a game developer does not understand this simple truth and does not follow what the customers actually demand in terms of stereo 3D support, then he has no right to complain from poor returns… it is as simple as that.

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Good news coming from EA about the upcoming First Person Shooter Crysis 2 that is expected to be available by the end of the year. During a press conference at E3 Expo Electronic Arts has announced that the game will support Stereoscopic 3D mode not only on the PC, but also in its console version available for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 and this probably means native S3D support built-in the game engine, as Xbox 360 still does not offer any official Stereo 3D support on console level, unlike the PS3 and PC. Unfortinately still not a lot of details are being disclosed, but we’ll probably get more details with the game nearing its official release date that still hasn’t been announced yet…

“At Crytek, we always strive to raise the technology bar. As the 3D revolution sweeps movies and television, we are excited to bring Crysis 2 to 3D, making it the first big action game to be available in true stereoscopic 3D,” said Cevat Yerli, CEO and President of Crytek. “The 3D experience represents a quantum leap in interactive entertainment. With all of the same story and action seen in the 2D version of the game, the 3D version adds another dimension of intensity and immersion to the action.”

Whether played in 3D or standard 2D, Crysis 2 drops players into a devastated New York in the midst of an attack by a frightening alien species. The alien enemies are armed with deadly weaponry and exceptional sensory abilities that test players’ skill and push them to the limit. These terrifying invaders stalk the streets of New York, leaving the streets in chaos and the skyline in flaming ruin. Surrounded by catastrophic destruction, players harness the superhuman abilities of the Nanosuit to level the playing field, becoming the ultimate weapon on a mission to save New York.

Now, considering the fact that first Crysis games was one of the most demanding titles for your hardware when it was first released, so we can expect to get the same from Crysis 2 too, especially when played in stereo 3D mode. And when talking about that I’m referencing the PC version of the game, as with the console versions it will most likely be a bit stripped down from advanced graphical effects and features in order to be able to provide good performance even in stereo 3D mode. So you better start thinking about upgrading your PCs CPU and GPU from now if they are not yet up to date… ;)

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3D Gaming Summit is the first conference that is nearly 100% dedicated to stereoscopic 3D gaming that will be taking place at the Hilton Los Angeles in Universal City on April 21st and 22nd (yes, that is next week!). Featuring top partners including NVIDIA, Sony, The S-3D Gaming Alliance, RealD, and more, it is a critical conference for all working in this industry or planning to start working in it as it is just starting to gain a momentum. Among the headline speakers for the 3D Gaming Summit are Mark Rein, Co-Founder of Epic Games, Jon Landau, Producer of Avatar, Alan Price, Studio CTO for Electronic Arts Canada, Jesse Stern, Writer of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, and many more. So if you have the chance to go there you should not miss it and then be sorry later on…

“The video game industry needs to appreciate the business opportunity that this conference represents. Game developers that partner up with content-hungry display makers will benefit from customer awareness, competitive technology, and great gaming experiences. Customers need gaming content for their new 3D HDTVs… so who will have games to sell? Stay in the loop, be prepared, go to the conference,” said Neil Schneider, Executive Director of the non-profit S-3D Gaming Alliance (S3DGA).

As a part of the 3D Gaming Summit there will also be a meeting for the S3DGA members that will be held at 5PM on April 22nd. Have in mind that a 3D Gaming Summit registration is not required for S3DGA meeting attendance. S3DGA meeting speakers include Electronic Arts, Blitz Games Studios, Jon Peddie Research, and more. This will be a private members-only meeting due to limited space. Subject to S3DGA management approval, additional game developers and first time guests are welcome with some condition however.

- For more information about the 3D Gaming Summit event go here…
- If you need more details about the S3DGA members meeting it is here…

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The S-3D Gaming Alliance (S3DGA) is a non-profit and non-proprietary organization that is the official voice and standards body for stereoscopic 3D gaming, with its whole reason for existence being to make stereoscopic 3D gaming successful in the home environment. With some of its current members being companies like LG Electronics, RealD, DDD, iZ3D, Blitz Games Studios, and others, the organization is constantly gaining more and more supporters with the latest one being Electronic Arts. And it seems that one by one other game developers are also starting to pay more and more attention to stereoscopic 3D gaming which is definitely a good sign…

“The S-3D Gaming Alliance’s energy and commitment to S-3D gaming is palpable and real. S3GDA is driving the industry towards high-quality standards that will benefit consumers, manufacturers and developers alike. This consistency will help drive the popularity of the technology and, in turn, provide more opportunities for manufacturers and our industry to meet the needs of consumers.” – Alan Price, Studio Chief Technology Officer, Electronic Arts Inc.

- To the official S-3D Gaming Alliance website for more information…

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There is a very interesting interview that Neil Schneider from MTBS and S-3D Gaming Alliance (S3DGA) did with Frank Vitz, Senior Art Director and CG Supervisor at Electronic Arts. Before joining EA Frank Vitz has worked on the first Tron movie, on the special effects for the first two X-Men movies and also on Spider-Man ride in stereoscopic 3D at Universal Studios in Orlando. Frank shares a lot of information about some of his old and new projects and his perspective about the stereoscopic 3D. The whole interview is something you should not miss, so head out to MTBS and take a look…

- Read the interview with Frank Vitz @ MTBS.com

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The new FIFA 2010 game is coming next month, but before that the demo of the game is already out, so I decided to try it with 3D Vision to see how well the game works in Stereoscopic 3D mode. Unfortunately the things did not go that well, because as expected there is still no official profile from Nvidia for that game and with the default settings it does not work that well as you might expect it to…

When you run the game with the default settings and low depth level in S3D mode it is almost normally playable with just some minor ghosting that is most clearly visible along the white lines marking the football field. These can be quite easily fixed by adjusting a bit the convergence level by hand and everything seems to be not that bad at first, but since the game uses a lot of different perspectives things that don’t go that well. And have in mind that thus far you are using a very low depth setting, making the game look just a bit 3d-ish and not that impressive with the stereoscopic 3D mode and if you increase the depth level you again will see the white lines ghosting…

And if you adjust convergence and depth so that you get not that impressive depth, but the game is almost normally playable when you switch the perspective for instance when you have to do a kick with your goal keeper the settings are all messed up again. But even if you readjust the convergence the next moment you are back to “normal view” and then again you see ghosting along the white lines…

And then along comes a view from another perspective or a cut scene and things again start to look out of order and then again readjusting and adjusting and readjusting… So Nvidia probably has to start thinking about making an option for different preset or auto-focus mode to automatically adjust the depth level according to the currently displayed objects on the screen so that you won’t have to do it manually every time.

Anyway the FIFA 2010 Demo does not look very good and promising for playing with 3D Vision in Stereoscopic 3D mode at the moment, but there is still some time until the final game gets out so maybe EA (not that likely) and Nvidia (an official profile) might do something to improve the results in S3D… ;)

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Great news for the S3D community as the S-3D Gaming Alliance (S3DGA) gains more and more members and attention not only from the gaming industry, and this is happening unexpectedly fast. It seems what began as a surprise announcement at SIGGRAPH 2009 has quickly become an industry-wide movement to ensure the adoption of stereoscopic 3D (S-3D) gaming in consumer homes around the world.

The association is very honored to announce that Habib Zargarpour, as a representative of Electronic Arts (EA), has joined S3DGA’s advisory board. As demonstrated at SIGGRAPH, game developers want to see industry-wide support for stereoscopic 3D gaming, and this is the first of many steps towards this goal.

As a Senior Art Director for “Need for Speed,” Habib Zargarpour’s game development credits also include “Need for Speed: Most Wanted,” “James Bond 007: Everything or Nothing,” and “Need for Speed Underground.” His diverse film background includes work with IMAX 3D, and a whole range of visual effects work for projects such as “Star Wars: Phantom Menace,” “The Perfect Storm,” “Twister,” “Star Trek: First Contact,” “The Mask,” and several more memorable films.

“When I saw ‘Need for Speed SHIFT’ in stereoscopic 3D at SIGGRAPH, I was impressed. The audience was blown away by how well ‘SHIFT’s’ immersive cockpit was represented by the 3D tech, and we see a great future for S-3D in games. We need an industry-wide standard for S-3D gaming, and S3DGA has the drive and experience to push this forward. All developers and manufacturers should participate,” said Habib Zargarpour, Senior Art Director for Electronic Arts Inc.

We, the S3D enthusiasts all hope that other big gaming and hardware companies will also join the alliance and start paying more and more attention to the S3D community, finally delivering we’ve all been waiting for in years – a true and as realistic as possible Stereoscopic 3D Experience … ;)

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