The Playstation 3 has long been the unhackable console of the current generation, with the Xbox 360 and the Wii being modded from early on. However, ever since a jailbreaking utility was released roughly a month ago (and then went open-source so you can jailbreak with all sorts of devices, including different phones and even calculators), the homebrew community has taken off, adding more functionality to the console in a way that can only be described as “amazing.”

The main functionality is obviously playing backed up PS3 games. Legally, you shouldn’t install any game to your Playstation 3′s hard drive that you don’t own. You can install a game to your internal hard drive on the PS3 using an application called “Backup Manager.” You can also get games off of the internet and place them on an external hard drive to play directly from that, or even transfer the games via FTP (using another PS3 utility) directly to the internal drive.
However, this is far from the only benefit of jailbreaking your console. A week ago, an SNES emulator was released for the PS3. It was even updated just today, to add a new feature.
Just a few days ago, we saw the release of a Sega Saturn emulator. There’s also a Dreamcast emulator in the works, although current performance is spotty (as shown in the video).

All in all, it’s shaping up to be a pretty awesome homebrew community. If you want to get in on the fun, as I mentioned earlier, it’s possible to jailbreak your PS3 with a wide variety of devices. There’s no hardware mods necessary — it’s all done on the software side.
I personally jailbroke mine with my first-gen iPod touch, which was a surprisingly quick and painless. I normally have all sorts of problems with this kind of stuff, but this flew right by.
With some modding skills, you may not even have to have anything other than your PS3 and a controller — a video of a jailbreak using nothing but the sixaxis controller was released yesterday, with a tutorial posted shortly after. Unfortunately, you do have to modify the hardware of your controller, but a mod like this would make life much simpler, as you have to plug in your jailbreak device every time you start up your PS3 (and it’s a bit of a pain to have to do so with an iPod or a phone).

So far, there’s unfortunately not a whole lot of custom homebrew games — just a Pong clone, but at least there’s potential. If nothing else, the emulators will keep coming, which has been my favourite thing about having a modded PS3 so far.

The one downside to modding your PS3 is that it’s currently only supported with the 3.41 PS3 firmware. This means if you’ve updated to 3.42 or 3.50, you’re out of luck. Even if you haven’t, though, you won’t be able to once you jailbreak, if you wish to keep it modded. This means that you can’t connect to the Playstation network to play games with other people, or make purchases on the PSN store.
But if you weigh the benefits with the downsides, I think you’ll find it worth trying. The emulators alone are worth jailbreaking for. (Unless, of course, you play online a bunch. Then I’d skip this until the current firmware is supported.)

Related posts:

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3. Sony’s PlayStation Network Plagued by a Y2K-like Glitch

Steam just recently released a Hardware & Software Survey for July. The survey is the first to list what they’ve found lurking on their user’s computers, software-wise. I’m going to take a look at both the hardware and the software findings of this survey, and see what it says about the people who use Steam.

First off, Windows XP 32bit is still the most popular OS. But I wouldn’t be surprised to see Windows 7 64bit take over that #1 spot within the next couple of months; in July, Windows 7 had a positive change of 1.59%, while Windows XP dropped ever so slightly, 0.26%. Even if the changes are gradual, they’re there, and if it keeps up at this rate, Windows 7 will take over in no time.
Mac OS X is holding about a 5% share of the OS’ being used, and almost half of those users have Macbook Pros.

The most popular video card is the ATI Radeon HD 4800 (7.21%), which is really not that bad. I’ve got an ATI Radeon HD 2600, and I’m capable of running all Valve games. Turns out a lot of users have pretty decent systems. (Only 0.69% of us have the Radeon HD 2600.)

Almost 4% of Steam users still have under 1GB of RAM. 2GB is the amount with the most users attached to it, with 27.23%. 3GBs is creeping up on it with 26.17%, and 4GBs is a bit behind with 22.19GBs. (Which surprises me. Most of the time, when I talk to people about it, they either have 2GBs or 4GBs of RAM. I hardly ever find anybody with 3GBs. Turns out they exist in higher numbers than I thought.)

Surprisingly, 2% of Steam users are still using dial-up. (Or some other form of 56k connection. What’s satellite speed, anyway?) But the most common connection speed is 2,048 Kbps. (That’s kilobits, not bytes. One byte = 8 bits.)

Let’s move onto software. (Well, the OS is technically software, but it’s not listed under the software section.)
The software results show us that the majority of Steam users are actually pretty computer capable. We don’t have a whole bunch of people who just play Steam and check their email on their computer… A surprising 29.41% of Steam users have uTorrent installed on their computer. And 30.73% have iTunes. A torrent client has almost as many users as iTunes.
Another testament to the fact that Steam users know what’s going on is the fact that Norton Antivirus holds but a 1.78% user share. (Unfortunately, AVG isn’t on the list, or I’d make some sort of comparison here.)
In another surprising turn of events, 100% of users have Steam. Turns out all gamers on Steam do use Steam after all.

I was a bit surprised to find that only 10.54% of Steam users used Xfire. I mean, I don’t use it anymore (haven’t in years), but I thought it was more popular than that.

The software for August will be much more telling, as we’ll have percentages for changes in software usage. Unfortunately, since this is the first month that data was collected, we’re only seeing one month’s data with nothing to compare it to.
I’m looking forward to the coming months of data collection, complete with graphs and other visual representations. I love this stuff.

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Starcraft 2 is one of the most anticipated videogames that I’ve ever seen. Undoubtedly the most widely-anticipated RTS release in years, if not ever. It’s been twelve years since the original Starcraft, and even that game is still kicking in online communities all over the world.

Today, Blizzard released Starcraft 2 to the public. A beta had been going on for some months beforehand, and now it has been officially released for all to purchase and download.

If you paid any attention to the story of the first Starcraft game + expansion, then you’ll be able to keep up pretty well with the happenings in the sequel. Starcraft 2 is set four years after Brood War, and you’ll revisit many of the same planets you battled on in the first game. However, if you never played the first game (or just didn’t pay any attention to the story whatsoever), you’ll still find it pretty easy to keep up. I’ve only played a couple of missions, but there hasn’t been too much referencing to past events or characters. It seems to be a fairly separate story in the sense that there are connections, but you mustn’t know them to enjoy the story here.

There’s a standard edition that includes just the game itself available for $60 (currently available for $55 on Amazon), and a collector’s edition box set that runs for $40 more, totaling out at $100, with which die-hard fans of the series will receive an art booklet, a flash drive containing the first game + expansion pack, a comic book, soundtrack, and more. Pretty sweet deal, and a lot of people are incredibly excited about this release. This game will undoubtedly be popular online for many years to come, if the first is any indication. Unfortunately, however, some users are experiencing problems. Specifically Mac OS X users with Nvidia graphics cards.

Apparently, the issue takes root in the latest Apple update for their Mac OS X operating system, 10.6.4, which causes problems for Nvidia users running high-end games, along with some other graphical issues, which are being looked at and fixed for the upcoming update to the operating system. There’s also an issue wherein Mac users playing with a USB headset have drastically worse game performance. The cause of this issue is thus far unconfirmed, and I’ve yet to even see speculation regarding a source of the slowdown.

However, the issue with crashing is much easier to pinpoint, and even a Valve representative agrees, saying

“The recent 10.6.4 update from Apple has noticeable performance issues for NVidia graphic chip owners running high performance games. If you wish to avoid this, you should consider waiting to install the 10.6.4 update until Apple has had the opportunity to address this issue.”

I’ve played Starcraft 2 on my Mac today, but it’s been in Boot Camp on Windows 7, so I haven’t experienced any of these issues. However, a friend of mine has reported crashing in the middle of any online matches (which then causes these matches to count as losses, affecting his online record).

As far as I’ve seen, there has not yet been a statement issued from a Blizzard employee or representative. They seem to be leaving us in the dark a bit about when exactly a fix will be released, but players are hopeful for a speedy recovery.

Related posts:

1. Half-Life 2 for Mac Released
2. Steam for Mac Released – First Impressions
3. Starcraft II Beta Launched!

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I got accepted into OnLive’s “founding members” program today — essentially what that means is that I get to use the service for one year, free of charge. I’m still charged if I wish to purchase games onto my account, but I can use every other part of the service — demos, spectating, friends, etc — without paying a penny.

And… Well, it’s pretty sweet. I mean, I disagree with how it works (in that if you “buy” a game, you only get to play it as long as you maintain your account fees), but it’s a relatively awesome service otherwise.

Let’s start off at the beginning… In order to use OnLive, you need a Mac OS X or Windows operating system with a wired internet connection. I was easily able to bypass this on my Windows 7 partition by bridging my wired and wireless network connections, “tricking” OnLive into thinking I had a wired connection when in all actuality I’m connected via Wi-fi.
You have to download and install a very small OnLive client file, to allow you to connect to the service. Once this is done, you log in and are shown an introductory video, then brought to the OnLive homescreen.

From here, you can go to the marketplace, edit your profile, watch other people play, etc etc… All of this works seamlessly with an Xbox 360 controller, and it really feels like a gaming console built into my computer. It’s very well presented, and it’s very responsive.

The first place I went was the marketplace, to check out some demos. I launched the demo for Just Cause 2, and… Well, it launched instantaneously. This was nice. No download, no nothing. The way OnLive works is that they just run the computer games from one of their servers and stream you the video of it playing. Whenever you hit a key or move your mouse, it sends that data to their server. You are then streamed a video of the result. This allows anybody with just about any computer system and a decent internet connection to experience the newest games in the industry. Now, I launched this demo expecting it to be the same demo I played on my Playstation 3. I was wrong. The demos in OnLive simply allow you to play the game for thirty minutes, no restrictions. This means that you start off at the beginning of the game and just do whatever you want for a half-hour. It’s pretty sweet, in that it actually gives you a taste of the game from the ground up. But it’s also got its downsides, which were evident in this particular demo.

Non-skippable cutscenes. A good bit of games have them at the very opening, and Just Cause 2 is no exception. This means you HAVE to watch them, no matter how long they are, and this takes away from your allotted play time in the demo. That’s pretty lame, but whatever, it’s understandable considering the game is just running right from their server and they can’t really modify how the game particularly works.

Once I got into the game, I noticed three things…
1) The graphical quality in the game itself is top-notch, but the video quality is lacking a bit. It’s evident that you’re just watching the game being streamed in real-time. Perhaps they need to change the format in which it streams or work on improving quality elsewhere.
2) There is a SLIGHT input lag. Not enough to deter me from the service at all, but if you’re looking for it you’ll find it.
3) I don’t care about either of these things. This service allows me to play these video games from any computer anywhere, instantly, just by signing into an account. The quality and input lag are most likely going to be worked on and fixed in the coming months, but even as it is, they’re not really that big of issues.

I got out of that demo and checked out the rest of their offerings. Surprisingly, not every game offers a demo yet (such as Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands), which perplexes me a bit. Demos help drive sales, especially in a situation where you get to try out a half-hours worth of the game unrestricted. It’s not even like they’d have to program a demo specifically for these purposes… Again, it’s just unrestricted gameplay for a half-hour. But I digress. Not every game allows for a demo to be played, and some games (the one I’ve noticed is Dirt 2) ONLY allow a demo. You can’t even buy that game yet.

Now, when you pay for a game, you’re buying a “PlayPass.” I’ll give you sample prices for PlayPasses based on those used for Just Cause 2.
A “Full PlayPass,” which allows you to play the game as long as your account is active, costs $49.99. A 5-day PlayPass, which, obviously, allows you to play for five dyas, is $6.99. And a 3-day PlayPass clocks in at $4.99.
Now, I’m not sure I’d ever buy a 5- or 3-day PlayPass, but it’s nice to have the option, I suppose.

After checking out the marketplace, I made my way to the “Arena,” where you can view real-time streams of other people playing games on OnLive. This is actually a REALLY cool feature. It’s like watching TV, and you can flip around as often and as quickly as you like.
The games that you can spectate are presented in a grid, with all of them playing in real-time, even as thumbnails. When you select one to view, it zooms in and instantly drops you into their action, from their perspective.
At this point, you can cheer them on. There is a “Cheer” button and a “Jeer” button that allow you to show your approval or disapproval at how well they’re playing or just how they’re playing. You can also add them as a friend from this menu.

I spent about ten minutes doing this. It’s actually a lot cooler than it sounds… Especially if you’re into sports, I imagine, as there are sports games on here and you can watch people play them as if you’re watching it on TV.

All-in-all, the service feels pretty awesome. It allows anybody with a decent connection, be them of the Windows or Mac persuasion (unfortunately it doesn’t look like Linux is supported) to play the latest games on the highest settings, and with a 360 controller no less. It really, for me, created the feel of a software gaming console. It feels very complete, very fluid, and incredibly functional.
Again, I disagree with the fact that you lose the games you’ve paid for once your account expires, but it’s still a pretty awesome service. I think my absolute favourite part is that you don’t have to download the games. The load times are minimal, due to the games running directly on their servers. The arena is pretty awesome, too, and it doesn’t even have to load the video streams that you’re watching.
It’s all very convenient and very fast. I’d recommend it to anybody looking for a way to play the newest games, or even if you just want to try it out and check out some demos. If that’s the case, try and get a founding member’s invitation while they last — after this promotion, it will run you $14.95 a month.

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Awesome news for PC gamers from the Nvidia front!

The company that brought you the popular Geforce graphics cards series, have recently announced the launch of their new 3D vision surround system!

This cutting edge technology takes 3D gaming and raises the bar, in terms of quality, by enabling the stereoscopic effect using three computer screens.

In order to be able to produce these effects on your PC, you need to be the owner of a GeForce GTX 400 series GPUs, 3D Vision and SLI technology.

Andrew Fear, senior manager at Nvidia stated that it was the creation of systems like this, that he loves working at the company. He said “The reason why I love working at Nvidia is because we can make products like this which make gaming better”. He went on to state that this will take 3D to a whole new level, as he said: “Trust me, you may have experienced 3D, but you have never seen 3D like this.”.

In order to enable the new 3D Vision Surround technology, users of compatible Nvidia cards will have to download the brand new GeForce Beta v258.69 driver, which has just been made available.

Have a look at this new phenomena by watching the video below:

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Valve has been steadily bringing their computer games over to the Mac platform via Steam in the last few months. Every Wednesday, they update the list of games available for Mac, and about every other week they’ve added one of their own to the repertoire, to mass excitement. The games go on sale and Valve makes bank with the increased amount of people purchasing and enjoying their great games while the consumers benefit by having their platform evolve into a tier 1 gaming platform, attracting not only games from Valve (who own Steam), but also third-party developers who want a slice of the fruit.

Ever since Steam has been released on Mac OS X, Valve has ported almost all of their games. We’ve got Portal, Half-Life 2 (all episodes), Team Fortress 2, and now Counter-Strike: Source. The only games that are missing are the original Half-Life, the original Counter Strike, Team Fortress Classic, and Left 4 Dead 1 and 2.
Now, as much as I would love them to, I doubt that Valve will end up releasing all Counter-Strike 1.6, Half-Life, and Team Fortress Classic. However, Left 4 Dead is on the chopping block, and I’m sure Mac gamers will have it by next Wednesday.

Now, whether or not they’ll release both Left 4 Dead titles simultaneously is unknown to me, but I’m sure that both WILL be released. They’ve already got a good bit of competition on the Mac platform, however, with Killing Floor, which was released for the platform early on. Regardless, I’m sure Left 4 Dead on the Mac will make quite a splash, as well as complete their porting for the platform, sans original games.

Gaming on the Mac has exploded since the release of Steam. And for people such as myself who purchased all the Valve games back in the day (who don’t have to repurchase to play on the Mac), it’s an absolute joy. Every time a Valve game is released, I get it… For free, basically. I mean, sure, I paid for it, but that was a few years ago.
It’s nice.

As far as third-party support for the platform goes, it hasn’t quite gotten to an awesome point, but it is definitely much more concentrated and available to the masses through Steam. Valve has made the Mac an awesome platform for gaming, and it doesn’t look like they’ll stop any time soon.

In fact, they’ve announced that Portal 2 will have a same-day release on Mac as PC. They are now one of the only giant development companies who treat Mac users like the rest of the world (another of which is Blizzard, who have been at it for years and years). Valve is hugely gaining respect from the whole gaming community for their efforts here, as well as just being awesome with customer support and having a huge presence in the gaming scene recently, especially on sites like Reddit where users have posted many times about Gabe Newell responding to their (sometimes silly) emails. (He’s even made a fat joke or two himself!)

We’re almost there, boys. We’ve almost got the whole collection.
This is looking good.

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2. Mac Gaming Gaining Traction
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With Kinect for Xbox 360 officially revealed to the public, it is about time we did a more in depth story on the device, for all those who are wondering what the heck it is, and what it does.

Kinect aka. Natal

Kinect started out under the  project name Natal, which has now been officially named by MS as Kinect for X Box 360

Why the name change?

Its tradition. Every project developed by Microsoft gets a project code name, and upon release an official name, just like Windows Vista was formerly known as Longhorn, and there were many projects before that.

When will Kinect be hitting the stores?

Well the official launch will be at the 4^th of November, but this is mainly geared towards the US market. Worldwide MS aims at the pre holiday period to have it available everywhere.

What will be the price of Kinect?

The device will go for $ 149, as was just confirmed by Microsoft. How this will translate to European prices is yet unclear.

What does it do?

Magic, and just like all magic it’s all smoke and mirrors, using cameras to sense motion, and through the Kinect device will be able to track your movements, conveying it to the game. It can track up to 48 skeletal points of the human body, which means it can track movement as detailed as individual finger movements. In addition a microphone can be used to issue voice commands to the Xbox 360. “Computer, make it so!”.

Does Kinect always require the Xbox 360

Yes, but the good news is it works with ANY Xbox, old and new.

How much space will I need to play, using Kinect?

Roughly 1 x 1 square meters, according to several test gamers, that have been going at it, during the E3 convention. While you may have to move a chair or a table, it should be doable in basically any type of living room, lounge or even your bedroom.

Is Kinect only using cameras?

No it uses cameras in combination with voice commands issued through the microphone.

What are the games that will be available for Kinect for Xbox 360?

New games are added to the list on a daily bases, but so far we know the following games will be included:

• Kinectimals: A game that lets you get friendly with a pack of cats
• Your Shape: Fitness Evolved: Obviously A fitness game(Nintendo Wii eat your heart out!)
• Kinect Joy Ride: A racing game.
• Kinect Sports: A Kinetic approach to the Wii sports games.
• Kinect Adventures: White water rafting simulation, and a very good one!
• Dance Central: MTV game that can teach you how to dance.
• EA SPORTS Active 2: Exercise game to get you into shape in a fun way.
• DECA SPORTS FREEDOM: More sports.
• Dance Masters: Dance with the masters of the dancing game.
• Adrenalin Misfits: Boarding through seven fantasy worlds.
• Zumba Fitness: And more fitness(Getting tired already)
• Sonic Free Riders: An action packed boarding game.
• The Biggest Loser: Ultimate Workout: And as if we needed it, more fitness.
• Motion Sports: Oh goodie more fitness!
• Game Party: In Motion: A Wii Play look alike.
• Forza Motorsport – Awesome Racing game.
• Child of Eden: I won’t say too much, only that it is quite addictive.
• Yoostar2: Movie karaoke video.
• Get Fit With Mel B: No I am not kidding, it is yet another fitness game.
• Kinect Star Wars: If anyone has the inspiration to step up and save the Galaxy, keep in mind that may become the next star wars kid, if your girl happens to have her camera handy!

When will those games be available?

Most of them will be released at the same time as Kinect will become available in the stores. For US that would be around the 4^th of November, rest of the world around that time, perhaps a few days later.

Will all games work with Kinect?

No , for games to work with Kinect they have to be specifically designed for it.

Will all games require me to be fit and working out?

While some games require more of an effort than others, some effort will have to go into it, obviously. How else would you play a game like EA SPORTS Active 2?

Is every game developing company making games for Kinect?

Not all, but most of them are. From what is known, Microsoft, Ubisoft, Konami, EA, SEGA, Lucas Arts and MTV are all in on it, and it is rumored that there are several smaller developers also working on Kinect games.

Is Kinect a one player device?

Kinect is designed to be able to handle up to four players at once, so bring out grandma, grandpa, and dad for the morning round of Get Fit With Mel B!

Will I be able to play in multiplayer mode?

As the device is connected to the Xbox 360, you can use it on the Xbox Live network, you can even video call your international buddies on there!

Can it do anything else besides motion control in games?

Yes, as I hinted above the device has the ability for video calls. While it is still being worked on an add on is in the making that will allow Kinect to connect to the Windows Live Messenger as well!

You can also use the voice commands for video playback(Play movie, rewind, pause, you get the idea).

Well, ladies and gentlemen, here you have it; everything you always wanted to know about Microsoft’s Kinect for the Xbox 360, but were afraid to ask.

Enjoy!

See larger image Kinect Sensor with Kinect Adventures! (Video Game) List Price: $149.99 USD New From: $115.99 In Stock Used from: $48.99 In Stock Release date November 4, 2010.

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During t he E3 event this year, Redmond based Microsoft has started filling in the blanks of its new Xbox 360 add on for motion sensing. The device, based on camera now has a name and is called Kinect and an iron clad release date of November 4^th has been set. Microsoft also allowed us all to take a peek at 15  titles that will  work with the device, but one major part of the new add on still remained a mystery, and that is its selling price.

With the ending of the E3 today, it is highly unlikely we will be receiving an answer from Microsoft about the matter any time soon, but perhaps this little tidbit of information can still be disclosed by looking at retailer databases, where the device is now listed at $149.99.

According to rumors that have been going around for last few weeks, Amazon, GameStop, Wall –Mart and the likes are all checking the Xbox 360 add on as $149.99 at the release date of November 4^th.

The giant of Redmond shrouds itself in silence as requests to confirm or deny this fact have gone unanswered.

The Kinect motion sensing system was formerly known as project Natal and its purpose is adding motion control to the popular Xbox 360 gaming console. Besides motion control the device is also capable of voice recognition, enabling gamers to issue voice commands, in order to navigate menus.

At this point 15 game titles have been announced to be working with the device, among them  are:

• Kinect Adventures
• Kinectimals
• Kinect Joy Ride
• Kinect Sports
• EA Sports’ Active 2
• Konami’s DanceMasters
• Sonic Free Riders
• A new Star Wars game from LucasArts
• Child of Eden
• UFC Trainer

Most of these games are to be released simultaneously with the release of Kinect.

See larger image Kinect Sensor with Kinect Adventures! (Video Game) List Price: $149.99 USD New From: $115.99 In Stock Used from: $48.99 In Stock Release date November 4, 2010.

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The next generation console in the Xbox family (commonly referred to as the “Xbox 720,” although no announcement to back up this name has been made) may very well see a street date of 2015, according to a statement made by Microsoft’s European boss, Chris Lewis.

It isn’t quite said that the console will hit 2015, but that five years from now is the earliest date that we could see an Xbox refresh. It appears that five years have been added to the Xbox 360′s lifespan by the new soon-to-be-released Slim variation of the console, as well as the recently renamed Kinect motion sensing control device for the 360 that will be available later in the year.

Chris Lewis says…

I think 2010 will be a very big year for us, it is in many ways for us mid-lifecycle…
What you’ve seen is with this new sleek design and Kinect for Xbox 360 we’ve got at least another five years of this generation where we continue to offer great experiences for people.

The Xbox 360′s downfall has been imminent as Red Ring of Death sufferers have risen in number, but to increase the longevity of the machine the 360 Slim apparently makes it just about impossible to get Red Ring’d. (Well, even if you DID have a hardware malfunction, it would be a red dot, not the infamous ring.)

Unfortunately, while the Slim doesn’t seem to completely eliminate the hardware vulnerabilities that result in the Red Ring, it does automatically shut down if not being vented properly, to alert you to the situation and prevent any long-term damage.
The error message that pops up says “The Xbox 360 is shutting down to protect the console from insufficient ventilation.”
At this point, the power button begins flashing. The error message ends off with “You can turn the console back on after the power light stops flashing.” This flashing lets you know how long the machine is risking an overheat, to allow you to completely avoid the situation and maybe figure out a way to get some better airflow through your console.

So, even while we’re waiting on a next-gen console from Microsoft, they’re still fixing up their current-gen console’s vulnerabilities. Fortunately, that adds lifetime to the console to prevent owners from having to purchase new hardware, as well as helps buyers feel more secure about their purchase. Unfortunately, it also means that their console was far from perfect at launch, and may still have a few yards to go.
We’ll have to wait until the Slim is with the mass public for a good while to put a final verdict on the Red Ring. This wouldn’t be the first time Microsoft has claimed to fix the problem, but it IS the first time we can actually visibly see what they’re doing without tearing our consoles open or consulting the men behind the counters.

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That the future of gaming will go towards the implementation of the much talked about 3D technology, is something the folks at EA have no doubts about, but they don’t think we will be seeing its full impact until late next year, or even 2012.

This fact was stated by Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitiello, who enjoyed a few round of 3D gaming at the popular E3 event. Besides the fact that the experience was in his words unbelievable, the CEO is also worried about the hype that is created around it. This may produce a barrage of badly coded 3D games, which will also be “unbelievable”, but then in terms of headaches.

The reason the world isn’t ready to fully embrace the new 3D technology yet, is the lack of gamers owning 3D capable devices, but with giants like Sony and Samsung pushing the technology ahead, this could change in a very short period of time. Until that happens game developers are holding their breath, before to fully unleash the power of 3D technology.

But not all developers in the industry are sitting still while the 3D craze is starting to take shape. One company, known for taking its own course, and has a track record of going against the stream  is Nintendo, and they might just have the thing for pulling off bringing 3D to the people, before everyone else has the chance. That company, as many of you may already have guessed is Nintendo, who is to release their new handheld: the DS3D, a new addition to their line of DS portable gaming consoles, and this new addition is fully equipped with the 3D gaming technology, which makes it just about the only gaming device that is capable of playing 3D without the need for any additional equipment. This in turn may enable them to gain a strong grip on the 3D market, long before anyone else gets the chance

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