Within Four Years Half of U.S. Homes Will Own a 3D-Ready TV
Futuresource Consulting predicts PlayStation 3 and new Blu-ray 3D players will drive 3D into homes
At CES 2010, 3D was the overriding message. With James Cameron’s Avatar still pulling in 3D revenue at the box office, Hollywood and the videogame industry are now focusing on bringing 3D home. The Blu-ray Disc Association’s announcement in December last year on the finalization of the Blu-ray 3D specification has been cemented by Sony’s release of a standalone 3D-Ready Blu-ray player, firmly fixing the industry’s crosshairs on a 3D future.
Within four years, 50% of US homes will own a 3D-Ready display, and the uptake of 3D–Ready Blu-ray players won’t be far behind, with one out of every three US homes owning one. This is according to Futuresource Consulting, with new research scheduled to be unveiled at their forthcoming webinar, “3D: How Big, How Soon?,” taking place on Thursday 25 February.
“Our research shows an imminent upsurge in the adoption of 3D-capable High Definition and Blu-ray hardware, now strengthened by a clearly defined 3D roadmap,” said Jim Bottoms, Director at Futuresource. “We expect that a high percentage of BD players will ship with 3D capability next year, and within a few years it will probably be difficult to buy a player without 3D”
Hunger for 3D content will also be driven by owners of PS3 consoles who will be able to play 3D Blu-ray content via a firmware upgrade this June. For those consumers not yet convinced by the HD experience, 3D will be a highly persuasive reason to upgrade. Combine this with other premium features, such as connected TV and Entertainment Database Browsing, which allows users to browse actor and production information, and consumers in the early adopter and early majority segments will begin to upgrade fairly quickly.
“With a number of leading hardware brands all vying to carve out an early position in the 3D TV and BD market, 3D Ready TVs and players will seed the 3D market in much the same way as the HD market was primed five years ago,” said John Bird, a leading strategy analyst at Futuresource. “By 2015 we expect the majority of TVs available will be 3D-Ready and the normal replacement cycle will result in a good proportion of households in the US, Japan and Europe having a 3D-capable display.”
Sony showcased a number of 3D games at CES in January, including Ubisoft’s Avatar, Killzone II, Gran Turismo 5 and MLB 10: The Show. Gamers will be able to take advantage of 3D technology this summer with a free PS3 firmware upgrade. They’ll also need a new Sony Bravia 3D TV or any of the competing 3D TV models currently out, or shipping this year.
“There is a real feeling of excitement surrounding 3D and here at Futuresource we believe the new unified approach will translate into commercial success within the course of the next few years,” added Bird.
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About the Author
John Gaudiosi
Editor-in-Chief
John Gaudiosi has been covering videogames for the past 17 years for outlets like The Washington Post, CNET, Wired Magazine and CBS.com. He has focused on the convergence of entertainment and videogames for outlets like Video Business, Home Media Magazine, Entertainment Weekly, The Hollywood Reporter and Variety. He currently serves as Editor-in-Chief of Gamerlive.TV and is also a freelance game columnist for Reuters and writes for outlets like Playboy Magazine, NVISION Magazine, GamePro Magazine, Official PlayStation Magazine, EGM Now, Maxim.com, AOL GameDaily.com, GeForce.com, and Yahoo! Games. John also serves as the video game expert for NBC in Washington D.C. John was named one of the Top 50 Game Journalists in the world by Next-Gen.biz in 2007. He is the co-author of Scholastic Books' How to Get into Videogames, Prima Publishing's Madden: Twenty Years of Videogame Football and Electronic Arts: The Official History.
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