At a recent London event, Mick Hocking, Sony Computer Entertainment’s (SCE) senior director, announced the prospect of 3D and other features to the PS3, thanks to an upcoming firmware update.
“Now, in June this year we did the 3D Firmware update. Every PlayStation 3 that’s connected online now has a new version of this Firmware.
At the last count we’ve got 35.8 million PlayStation 3s out there – that means there’s an instant market of around 36 million 3D-ready PlayStation 3 consoles. The upgrade basically makes every PlayStation 3 HDMI 1.4 compatible – that’s the standard that governs 3D displays.What this means is that there is no setup at all required. If you have a PlayStation 3 and you buy a 3DTV, you simply connect via your HDMI cable and your PlayStation 3 will automatically recognise that you’ve got a 3D display attached.
In September this year, we’re launching another Firmware upgrade – and this one is going to upgrade the PS3 to support Blu-ray movies in 3D. Again, you won’t have to do anything – just connect your PS3. For the film market that’s a very significant event.
Then later in the year – we’re not going to date it yet – the PS3 is going to support 3D photos. Of course the popularity of 3D isn’t just going to come from movies and games. There’s 3D cameras on the market, there’s 3D camcorders coming on the market in the next 12 months as well, and 3D broadcasts.
So you’ll see 3D games in the next 12 months, you’ll see Blu-ray movies in 3D, and as soon as the broadcasts start through our PlayTV services, you’re going to watch 3D content [through that service].
YouTube will be supporting 3D content over the next 12 months as well – and you’ll be able to watch that on the PlayStation 3. And as you start taking 3D pictures of your family or 3D camcorder movies, you can play those back on PS3, too.It’s a great purchase proposition and future proof.”
