Sony Questions Nintendo Demographic's 3D Acceptance

Nintendo has been known to primarily target a younger demographic with its games and consoles, and competitor Sony Computer Entertainment America recently questioned if that audience fits well with the newly-announced Nintendo "3DS." "I think it remains to be seen where Nintendo goes with 3D on a portable," said John Koller, SCEA director of hardware and marketing in an IGN report. He continued, "Having been in the portable space for quite awhile, I think it's an interesting move but one I'd like to see where they go from a demographic standpoint. Eight- and nine-year-olds playing 3D is a little bit of a stretch given where some of our research is right now." SCE is doing its own extensive work in the 3D gaming space, although its 3D aspirations are centered on the PlayStation 3, which is using different 3D technology than the tentatively-named Nintendo 3DS. Ian Bickerstaff, senior engineer with SCE's UK-based stereoscopic 3D team told Gamasutra earlier this month that "a lot" of internal Sony game studios are working on implementing 3D in various projects. Sony plans on launching 3D Bravia televisions this summer, and said it will release a firmware update for PS3 that will allow for 3D viewing capabilities. Koller added, "Our focus on 3D right now is on the console. There's a tremendous amount of opportunity on PlayStation 3 with 3D. The amount of interest in 3D from the retail side and game publishers is off the charts. We know we have a hit with 3D on PS3 and we're going to concentrate our efforts there." Nintendo has yet to reveal the exact method of portraying 3D on a handheld, although reports out of Japan suggest the 3DS will utilize a parallax barrier technique from Sharp. Nintendo will reveal more 3DS details at E3 in June this year.