3D

[Dave]

The price of entry to home theater 3D, gaming or otherwise, seems rather steep... Is there really a market for this at this time? Is there enough early adopters with cash to burn out there to justify marketing this? Or is this more about the industry strategically getting 3D on our minds, even if it means taking a short-term hit to profits? Is it one BIG company trying to get this pushed to have this technology become the industry standard in a few years?

[David Yun]

There never will be a market if they don't push it. How many years after DVDs were first introduced until you got your first one? Or your HDTV? Something approaching a full decade, right? And tons of people still don't have HDTVs. Your phrase "enough early adopters" is pretty funny; if there were more, they wouldn't be early. LOL

You could argue that the demand for cheaper, better "standard" HDTVs is nowhere near the saturation point and that they could wait on this consumer tech. You could further argue that this 3D tech isn't fully baked, and they should R&D it more, particularly along the Microsoft lines of glasses-free 3D.

But these companies follow the money. They NEED to innovate and push on along calculated gambles or risk the destruction that follows complacency. In this "launch window", we're talking about Samsung, Panasonic, and Sony. Heavy hitters. With everyone else soon following suit because none of them can afford not to follow. None of them can take the gamble of NOT taking the gamble; they would then run the risk of being perceived by consumers as those chumps who can't make a 3D TV.

Remember when I was explaining the potential of Avatar to be one of those all-time landmarks? I wasn't talking about the film's narrative. It was an entertaining action film, but Cameron won't win the Academy Award for his screenplay. If we're talking traditional 2D, I can't particularly recommend the film. What he did, however, was examine the potential of 3D and directed the film to take advantage of it. It wasn't the usual Captain EO style "OOH shit's popping out at you". He used combinations of visual depth and action in both subtle and eye-grabbing fashion. For the first time in decades at the LEAST, he added new tools and vocabulary to the craft of filmmaking.

And made ten shit tons of money in the process.

Of course the industry is taking a hit to profits. Research and development incurs horrific costs. But they're willing to play because that's the way you make shit tons of money.