Grab your Dramamine and couch-sickness bags, Sony’s long anticipated 3D update for its PlayStation 3 video game console will finally be available tomorrow.
In a post to Sony’s official PlayStation blog, hardware marketing director John Koller writes “the moment is here…starting tomorrow, high-definition stereoscopic 3D gaming will be available in your very own living rooms!”
The update likely comes as part of firmware update 3.40, earlier rumored to be breaking tomorrow as well. The update coincides with the paper launch (pre-orders, shipping later this month) of Sony’s 3D-ready XBR-LX900 series of edge-lit LED televisions. The flagship model tops out at 60-inches, a $5,000 monster refreshing at 240Hz and packing an anti-glare panel, integrated Wi-Fi, automatic backlight dimming, and of course, the requisite 3D glasses (two pairs, in fact).
So yes, the firmware update is free, like all prior PS3 firmware updates, but the actual cost of availing yourself of Sony’s entry into the 3D cosmos equals the time it takes to download said update (negligible) along with the rather not-so-negligible cost of a brand new boutique-caliber TV.
Sony says the first round of 3D games will include futuristic racing game WipEout HD, asteroid-blaster Super Stardust HD, comedy-physics body-flinger PAIN, and a demo for buggy-racer MotorStorm Pacific Rift. While the demo’s free, the other games aren’t, though Sony says that if you pick up a Bravia 3D TV, it’ll come with a voucher to download them gratis.
Sony adds that its pugilistic PlayStation Move game, The Fight: Lights Out, will also support 3D when it ships later this year with the company’s motion-control solution. (We’ll probably see how that actually works at E3 next week.)
On a down note, the company’s 3D Blu-ray update won’t be part of tomorrow’s pulldown, and instead will be available sometime “this year via firmware update.”
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