Sony is going to get people to buy 3D TVs whether they want to or not. Despite the fact that demand for 3D technology has been weak so far, Sony is doubling down on the third dimension. Like it did for polygonal graphics in the mid-90s, the electronics maker is heavily pushing 3D to its developers. More than 50 3D games are in development for the PlayStation 3, according to one Sony executive.
In an interview with Develop Online, Mick Hocking, SCEE game studio director, explained just how hard Sony plans to push the technology. “…Overall we have more than 50 titles currently being converted into 3D, and this number if growing fast. I can tell you, games are leading the way when it comes to the driving the whole 3D revolution.”
Though few specific games were named, 20 of the titles are Sony-published games, said Hocking. Killzone 3, Motorstorm, and other “massive names” are undergoing 3D conversion.
Hocking’s message to developers is that converting to 3D offers a huge “bang for your buck.” The process can add as little as two percent to a game’s budget and doesn’t eat up the amount of processing resources one would think.
“The analysis we’ve got for the games we’re doing internally – and we’re adding 3D to a lot of our games – is that the average investment for adding 3D can be as low as two per cent in time and budget,” said Hocking. “If you think about how profound 3D can make a game, I think that’s more than worth it.”
Sony is really pushing 3D, so much that representatives have almost praised Nintendo’s 3DS handheld system. But do people really want to wear 3D glasses at home? Gamers are more used to odd peripherals than any other group, but Sony may be pushing its luck.
Acer’s Predator Atlas 8 finally has a US release date and price, several months after the company first showed off the handheld in May. The highlight is the Intel Arc G3 Extreme chip inside, which has been adopted by only a couple of other consoles besides the Atlas 8. This version will go on sale exclusively at Best Buy on November 1 for $1,299.99.
Acer originally said the Atlas 8 would arrive in North America in October, but left pricing open at the time. The launch came amid the ongoing DRAM crunch, which has made memory more expensive across the PC industry and complicated pricing for hardware makers.
Gaming laptops and I have a complicated relationship. One of my first gaming rigs was an Acer Predator that was already outdated when I bought it. I was a broke college kid, and that was the best I could afford. So trying out high-end gaming laptops is always fun. But ASUS' ROG Zephyrus G14 is a lot more than a laptop that can run AAA games. It is portable, so you're not lugging around a 2.5kg machine everywhere you go. It is built well, none of that plastic chassis, and can even function as a normal laptop outside of just gaming.
Google Play is borrowing one of the Nintendo Switch’s most useful little tricks. A new Sidekick tool called Playbacks captures a short clip after something interesting has already happened, sparing players from running a screen recorder throughout an entire game.
Playbacks is part of Google Play Store v53.8 and keeps saved clips on the phone. Google first announced it earlier this month, but the new Play Store update marks its arrival for players. Anyone who has watched a perfect win vanish because the record button came too late already understands the appeal.