![]() ![]() By 2017, the last major TV manufacturers dropped support for 3D from their new sets and CNET ran a story with the headline "Shambling corpse of 3D finally falls down dead."Ī decade ago we were also seeing Wii-infused takes about motion controls as the future of gaming. The only game at launch to support stereoscopic 3D was from a third party (Trine 2: Complete Story) and Sony didn't bother adding 3D Blu-ray movie compatibility until eight months after release. If you're wondering how that turned out, Sony's 3D push was largely done with by the time the PS4 launched in 2013. For example, ten years ago this month, Sony was ratcheting up the hype for 3D TV in the post-Avatar world, announcing that the PlayStation 3 would receive a firmware update to enable 3D gaming for titles like Wipeout HD, Motorstorm: Pacific Rift, PAIN and Super Stardust HD. Pretty much every next big thing has some early setbacks and failures, but there's no guarantee they'll recover from those stumbles. Those both flopped as well, but they were right in seeing that digital distribution really was the future they were just mistaken about how far off it was. In 2001, game retailer Electronics Boutique would offer downloadable rentals of frontline games through its EB1 service. The Sega Channel would deliver Genesis games to subscribers through their local cable TV provider. ![]() That failure aside, the idea stuck around. Pretty much every next big thing has some early setbacks and failures, but there's no guarantee they'll recover from those stumbles ![]() The idea had been around since the early '80s, when the company that would eventually become America Online created an Atari 2600 peripheral called Gameline to let users download games through a phone line. While digital distribution for video games was indeed rounding a corner in 2010 and transforming every aspect of the industry, it wasn't an overnight success by any means. (For regular readers of the column, that last link is a two-fer that also includes one of our favorite recurring and reliably wrong predictions.) The shift would happen quickly, as Wester would later report the company brought in 97% of its revenue through digital sales in 2011. Paradox Interactive CEO Fredrik Wester was talking up digital distribution, saying that 2010 was on pace to see digital revenues surpassing physical sales for the first time in the company's history. The "next big thing" has been a part of the games industry as far back as I can remember, and ten years ago was no exception. I want to instead talk about the idea of "the next big thing," the marketing concept that venture capitalists routinely pour millions of dollars behind in the hopes of turning them into billions of dollars. No, not the specific disruptive innovation that will reshape the industry for years to come. So to refresh our collective memory and perhaps offer some perspective on our field's history, runs this monthly feature highlighting happenings in gaming from exactly a decade ago. That said, even an industry so entrenched in the now can learn from its past. The games industry moves pretty fast, and there's a tendency for all involved to look constantly to what's next without so much worrying about what came before.
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