Media

The Value of 3D

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I have an ambiguous relationship with the whole 3D movie/game/tv/whatever trend.  On one hand, I love new gadgets and neat technology, and I like a good spectacle.  On the other hand, it seems like it's becoming an annoying fad and everyone is jumping on the visually appealing bandwagon.  Despite the challenges, despite lousy conversions of 2D films to 3D (Clash of the Titans comes to mind), people are barreling ahead with 3D.  Apparently, there will be a 3D release of "The Last Airbender," which fills me full of dread (taking what appears to be a visually stunning film and running 3D after the fact?  Not good.)

Now, I think 3D is going to be inevitable.  It's approached a fad status, people are interested in visual quality, but I'm expecting 3D to be a very bumpy road for moviemakers, game makers, and hardware people.  The problem is that people don't "get" 3D, they don't ask the question anyone should ask about a new technology, gizmo, process, etc.

Does it add value?  If you don't ask that question you're either ignorant or just trying to jump on the bandwagon.

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Backlog and The End of Backlog

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So the iPad is here to deliver our media, tablets are on their way to challenge the iPad, smartphones are there when we don't have tablets . . .

There's going to be a lot of way to get our content in the future.

Of course, not all that content is going to be new content.   Past games will be recompiled or emulated.  Comics wlll be scanned, books digitized or re-digitized.  New content is going to compete with old content.

I've speculated before about this competition – simply delivering old content in many ways is faster and cheaper, and represents a huge backlog of easy-to-deploy content.  For those of us in the content/media business, a truly geeky area, that's important as it will affect what we do and what we produce.  We need to observe this competition.

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