Ever since CES 2010, the internet has been speculating on the future of 3D. Is it just a gimmick or is it the future of how we experience television?

It seems like many people assume it’s going to be the way we experience everything in the future, regardless of the content. Yet, there are others who are quite vocal about how much they dislike 3D. I’m not talking about the people that can’t experience 3D because of their eyes. I’m talking about the ones that have experienced it and don’t like it. They say it’s a fad and that no one will wear glasses to watch TV. That is probably true, but that argument seems pretty similar doesn’t it?

After the Wii was announced that was one point brought up by the skeptics. Why would you want to stand up and move around when playing video games? Years later the Wii and to some extent the PS3 have proven that motion control is not appropriate for all games, yet it’s not going away. New Super Mario Bros. has very simple gesturing, but for the most part the game is played with a D-pad and a couple buttons. On the PS3, motion control has been reigned in so much that many games don’t even feature it.

3D will go through similar growing pains. At first, there will be games that want to make things jump off the screen at you, but movies went through that as well. Avatar is the first big budget movie to use 3D in a sensible manner. Yes, there were a few moments where a branch or something would pop off the screen, but it was used more to create the illusion of depth.

The other hurdle developers will have with 3D is figuring out which games work best with it. My initial thought is anything using the first person perspective. Playing Call of Duty or Halo in 3D should allow for even more immersion. The same thing could go for racing games. A player could benefit from the extra bit of depth perception. As a casual racing fan I would love the ability to play Forza or Gran Turismo in 3D. That matched with a racing wheel would be as close to the real thing as we could get.

3D technology will get cheaper and everyone will be able to afford it at that point, but 3D haters have nothing to fear. 3D will not replace everything. We will still have the option for playing games in just two dimensions. 3D’s future is going to end up like motion control; it will be there as an option for those that want it.