"I think 3D gaming is huge," said Mick Hocking, senior director for Sony Computer Entertainment Europe Studio Liverpool, in an interview with Kotaku. "There are many, many benefits that 3D brings to games, but in general it enhances your sense of immersion. Your eyes pick up a lot more information that with 2D."
Hocking leads PlayStation’s worldwide studio’s stereoscopic 3D team - a group within Sony that has been working with 3D gaming for the past two years now. To Hocking, 3D represents a huge opportunity to gaming. The most important aspect, though, is immersion, says Hocking, with racing and sports games representing genres that can benefit the most.
"In those you have more information to reach to, like judging the breaking point in a turn, where to overtake a car, or when to swing a bat in major league baseball," he said. "All of that is much, much more intuitive in 3D than it is in 2D."
3D, emergent as it is, still represents a cost that most consumers are not willing to pursue at this point; the glasses still represent a major problem for viewers.
"I think it's crucially important that we produce high-quality 3D at this time," he said. "We're in the phase of building the market. We need to convince (gamers) to not only get the games but also to buy the 3D TVs.
"If you do produce 3D games in the right way it is a stunning experience and justifies the need to put glasses on and buy that TV," he said. "If not done well it's just used to add depth or worse it can put people off."
"3D done right isn't just about adding depth to a scene; it is a creative medium," Hocking said. "There are choices about how much depth you put into a scene depending on what you're after, whether it is to create a sense of suspense or vertigo."
To Hocking, the concept of 3D was finally proven with the most successful movie of all time, Avatar. "Avatar was proof that if you deliver a high-quality experience people will flock to it," he said.
It is therefore time for video games to stand up and take 3D by the horns. The technology present within Avatar was truly impressive, but for 3D to really shine, a video game needs to bring full immersion and control into the equation. Sony’s upcoming line-up of games hope to be the first titles to really demonstrate what games are capable of producing for 3D, and Hocking thinks Motorstorm will be the best example of 3D gaming yet.
"My completely unbiased opinion is Motorstorm Apocalypse," Hocking said. "I think Killzone 3 has a great sense of vertigo, especially in the jetpack levels, but Motorstorm has things blowing up all around you and past you."
Hocking believes that Motorstorm will really demonstrate the capabilities that 3D can bring the table, but for improvement, developers need to really learn to embrace 3D not as technology, but as a technique. "The teams are really coming to grips with it," he said. "These guys are really starting to understand the medium."
