Ubisoft envisions a future of 3-D movies, games

Older readers out there might think that the 3D gaming revolution began with the advent of consoles like the PlayStation, N64 and the Sega Saturn, but the real 3D gaming revolution is just beginning, according to Ubisoft. 3D gaming doesn't refer to three dimensional graphics anymore; nowadays it means that the game jumps out of the screen and into your eye holes. Beginning with the game adaptation of James Cameron's Avatar, Ubisoft Montreal's Yannis Mallat tells the Financial Post that he sees the company becoming a "360-degree entertainment content provider."

As the wording suggests, Ubisoft's future won't necessarily be restricted to games. Mallat hopes that future game consoles will be able to render photorealistic graphics, enabling Ubisoft to create games and films using the same assets -- similar to what the company did with the Assassin's Creed: Lineage short films.

Of course, enjoying this "360-degree entertainment" will require a special television set. Still, Mallat is firmly behind the technology, saying that it does for images what Dolby did for sound. "No one wants to go back to mono," says Mallat. That's all well and good, but a huge number of gamers have yet to even upgrade to an HDTV at all, let alone one that can take advantage of 3D technology.

[Via VideoGamer]

Reader Comments (66)

Everyone has the right to be skeptical but i don't see one argument here besides the very subjective "I don't like it' or it's too pricey.

Technology costs go down over time that is a fact and nobody is forcing anyone to get on board right now. OLED will be 1000s of dollars cheaper in 10 years time as well... They will probably already have been replaced by a new technology.

I like 3D. Deal with it.

If developing titles to use this technology does not increase development time and costs, then I'm all for it.

However, I doubt that is the case, and as such, companies are going to chase gimmicks rather than investing in great gaming experiences. Between this sort of thing and everyone going DLC mad, your fifty bucks is getting you less and less actual game lately.

Ah that I can understand. Good point. But for me the motion technology comes across as a gimmick because i am not really interested in getting up from my couch and those do take allot of time to develop because they have to develop their game with the motion in mind and work out controls. On the other hand most chicks seem to love this motion technology so again that's relative.

3D on the other hand is not really that hard to implement since all games are already being rendered in 3D. You just need another output of the same world offset at a small angle that compensates for the distance between your eyes.

Anyway you will always be able to turn it off. You will be able to choose whether you play it in 2D or 3D and i am all pro choice :p

Honestly motion tech is more of an actual technology and 3D has come out as a gimmick of the year every three to five years. Heck as far back as the SegaScope 3-D Glasses, your probably all just too young to remember .... then again that's before my time too so.... eh probably even farther back than that.

I will give you this time they seem to have done more homework on it and are making a far larger push to get this iteration of their 3D tech accepted by the public but I'm not holding out any more hope than I did the last seven hundred and forty three times they tried this in the past.

Still I don't wish them any specific harm, you might go as far as saying I wish them the best.

This time 3D will not go away. The main reason is that film makers and cinemas see it as a way to get more people into see the films as most people don't have the systems at home yet, and the films are not as easy to copy (no more filming them with camcorders, just won't work with a 3D film). If cinemas can get more people in to see the films then they and the film makers will make more money, and if the films are produced in 3D then there will be plenty of people out there who will want the cinema like effect and buy all the kit they need.

I feel sorry for people who are unable to see the 3D effect, but that is no reason for others not to have it I'm afraid. Did we stick with mono audio just because some people are partially deaf?

FWIW, in terms of the surround sound analogy, we run our home theater setup (a full surround sound system with in ceiling/wall speakers) with the surrounf OFF about 90% of the time because the dynamic range is just *punishing*.

So, if *everyone* is watching a movie together, yes, it rocks.

But we only run one TV this way and none of our computers (about five) or TVs (nine).

I'd much rather see work on multi-panel displays that widen field of vision to the periphery or VR style immersive displays rather than movie theater style poppin out of the screen and only looks good dead center in front of it 3D tech.

I would like to see all those things happen as well but thats not for tomorrow. 3D is here today and just like with your surround system you will be able to turn it off when you dont want it. The new 3D tech also doesn't have to pop out at you, that depends on the film or game maker. It can create a window effect where you look into the screen as if it is made of glass and see a world behind it.

@Scuffles. Have you seen the new 3D? you really can not compare it with the previous generations. We are way past the red/green blurry, weird colors 3D.

Most technologies start out with allot of defects but as time progresses it gets better and better. The reason there is such a gigantic push going on right now is because we are now at the point that 3D only adds to the experience and doesn't take away anything like the previous generations of 3D tech.

I don't want 3D nor do I want motion controls. I just want to park my butt on my sofa and game. I just hope they include the options to turn this stuff off.

Man, gaming seems to be getting more commercialized and "gimmicky" each and every day, especially with console gaming. Motion controls, 3D vision, DLC, etc.

I miss the old days of gaming sometimes and I am a bit afraid of the next console generation.

3D Vision isn't gimmicky. It "converts" games into TRUE 3D by placing another camera in-game for your eye. It's actually very well done with most games. It's great to go back and play old games with real depth to everything. Great experience and I honestly think people blowing it off simply haven't tried it.

You guys remind me of old farts :p
Those kids with their mp3 players and internets these days... what the hell is all that good for!

When our grandchildren are running around in virtual reality they won't understand the problems we had with 3D.

Actually quite a few plasmas work with 3D. You should look into it Tiptup.

Not a fad, 3d really is the future. If you spend any time at all with it you will understand.

I think everyone here poopoo-ing #d has actually never seen a properly configured display/game in 3d.

get sum free 3d glasses here lol http://www.invincibletiger.com/#/register us the magic word mythical

Actually, Sega did the full-color stereo 3-D thing on the master system back in 1987.

The only problem was, the SMS was an 8-bit console with absolutely no graphics scaling to speak of, so the 3-D effect really relied on depth - not stuff flyng at you.

The games that did involve stuff flying at you had pretty poor 3-D effects. Namely Space Harrier 3-D (because you could see the sprite layering) and Missile Defense 3-D.

And Sega managed to pull the effect off WITHOUT 120hz TV's. Why can't they have a 30/30fps option (60 total fps with 30 frames dedicated to each eye)?

Ubisoft envisions a future of 3-D movies, games

Reader Comments (66)

Posted: Dec 1st 2009 9:54AM DaFreak said

Posted: Dec 1st 2009 10:07AM Dale P said

Posted: Dec 1st 2009 10:16AM DaFreak said

Posted: Dec 1st 2009 11:47AM Scuffles said

Posted: Dec 1st 2009 11:03AM FireMonkey said

Posted: Dec 1st 2009 11:45AM zenaxe said

Posted: Dec 1st 2009 11:59AM DaFreak said

Posted: Dec 1st 2009 11:48AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Dec 1st 2009 12:07PM RKN said

Posted: Dec 1st 2009 12:39PM Chibi Chaingun said

Posted: Dec 1st 2009 12:20PM DaFreak said

Posted: Dec 1st 2009 12:35PM Chibi Chaingun said

Posted: Dec 1st 2009 12:41PM Shagittarius said

Posted: Dec 1st 2009 12:45PM Shagittarius said

Posted: Dec 1st 2009 1:49PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Dec 1st 2009 5:41PM (Unverified) said

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