Ever since it partnered with James Cameron on Avatar, Ubisoft has been tooting the 3D gaming horn. And 3D is so important to Sony, that the company is making the technology one of the pillars of its turnaround plan. Sony will be launching 3D televisions next year and the company has said that we can expect 3D games to launch alongside those TVs to take advantage of what they can offer. Today, Namco Bandai has thrown its name into the 3D ring too, as the publisher has adopted RealD's proprietary Stereoscopic Gaming API into their development environment.
The RealD technology is "designed to solve issues inherent with existing 3D gaming technology. This includes creating the perception of depth across the entire line of sight, eliminating any 'cardboard cut-out' background affects. The API also gives developers new gameplay tools like head tracking and automatic camera adjustments, creating a fully immersive 3D gaming experience that interacts with a player visually and physically."
Namco Bandai said that the new RealD technology will be implemented into its upcoming, as yet unannounced titles. No specific timeline or release schedule was mentioned.
"RealD has the world's best 3D technology, as evident by their leading the current 3D movie revolution," said Shin Unozawa, President & Chief Executive Officer, Namco Bandai Games Inc. "We look forward to our developers leveraging RealD's decades of 3D expertise and this breakthrough technology to deliver an unsurpassed and true-to-life 3D gaming experience."
"RealD 3D introduced a new era of movies, giving filmmakers the ability to take audiences inside distant worlds, immersing them deeper into stories than ever before," said Joshua Greer, President of RealD. "RealD technology can now do the same for gaming by creating ultra-realistic 3D experiences where players can literally step inside a game and interact with a fully dimensionalized environment. This new generation of RealD 3D powered video games will for the first time truly replicate on screen the way we see and interact with our world."
We're curious to see if Namco Bandai will use existing IP like Tekken, Soul Calibur, Dragon Ball Z, etc., or if the company will deliberately create new properties with 3D in mind.
