It's not clear how much caffeine the folks at Nintendo pumped into that poor guy before they put him in the Super Mario costume. He is dancing maniacally, waving his arms in the air as though trying to shake off invisible leeches, posing for photos with countless admirers and Nintendo-wristbanded children. It's a few degrees below zero on a Saturday at Yonge-Dundas Square, in the heart of downtown Toronto, and Mario is dancing his big foam head off.
The launch of the Nintendo 3DS – the latest iteration of the Japanese tech giant’s 150-million-selling DS handheld, which itself is probably the most popular video-gaming system of all time – is important. Nintendo's latest console looks a lot like the original DS, with its dual-screen setup and sleek, Tron-meets-a-cigarette-case design. Only the 3DS, as one may have already guessed from the name, offers 3-D gaming. It is perhaps the first major hand-held gaming device to offer a glasses-free 3-D experience.
It is also the last best hope for the massively over-hyped 3-D home entertainment market, which is, unless something goes terribly right, shaping up to become the consumer electronics industry's Titanic.
Some perspective with regards to the extent to which the world’s biggest electronics companies are betting on 3-D: A few days before Nintendo's Dundas Square block party, this reporter will brave a miserable late-March snowstorm to travel to the Hilton Suites Conference Centre in Markham for a preview of Sony's new product line. The demo units on display include: 3-D TVs; 3-D video cameras; 3-D laptops; 3-D video-gaming; 3-D movies on demand; 3-D home entertainment systems; A software algorithm that converts two-dimensional video into 3-D.
As of the spring of 2011, 3-D is a standard feature on all middle-of-the-road-and-better Sony televisions. In about a year or two, you won't be able to buy any Sony TV that doesn't come with 50 per cent more dimensions.
When I return to the office, I will find a press release advertising the EVO 3-D, HTC's latest smart phone, which comes equipped with two cameras and a glasses-free 3-D screen. A short while later, my editor will forward me Panasonic's 2011 product lineup announcement. The press release will contain 32 instances of the term “3-D”.
For almost two years, the consumer electronics industry has pushed 3-D as the next big thing, the rightful successor to the high-definition experience, the future of entertainment. Much of the blame for this relentless marketing blitz falls on – you guessed it – James Cameron.
In late 2009, as technology reporters were gearing up for the Consumer Electronics Show in January, it seemed the industry's annual showcase would offer few surprises. Slim TV screens would get a little slimmer, computers a little faster, microprocessors a little smaller. But in the months leading up to CES 2010, a phenomenon called Avatar swept through the world’s movie theatres, eventually pulling $2.7-billion in ticket sales and becoming the highest-grossing movie of all time. The film came in various flavours, including a number of 3-D formats. It stood to reason, then, that there was no better time to introduce 3-D technology to the living room than immediately following the mind-boggling success of the most popular 3-D (or, indeed, AnyD) movie ever. Fast forward a few months, and the CES showfloor is littered with 3-D TVs from just about every big name in consumer electronics.
(Tangent: Not to pick on the company, because CES is full of ghastly, over-the-top PR stunts, but Sony was responsible for one of the more ridiculous 3-D gimmicks at CES 2010. During Sony’s big press conference that year, CEO Howard Stringer took to the stage before a live audience and promptly announced that pop superstar Taylor Swift was the company’s latest product spokeswoman. Ms. Swift then appeared on stage to perform a song for the crowd. But there was a twist: Mr. Stringer encouraged the audience to put on their 3-D glasses and crane their necks toward the overhead monitors so they could watch Ms. Swift sing “in 3-D” – something they could have just as easily done without 3-D glasses by simply looking at the performer, who was literally standing about six feet away from them).
