Can Avatar change gaming?

There's a little art-house movie out there that has a few fans. You may have heard of it. There was never any question that Avatar was going to be big, but I'll admit honest surprise by how big it actually is. Pretty much everyone out there seems to have seen it, even people who normally don't have much interest in genre movies. Even more shockingly, Avatar looks like it has a chance of dethroningTitanic as the number one movie of all time.

At this year's CES, 3D televisions made a big push for mainstream attention, and will start showing up in homes this year. If people enamored by Avatar's 3D theatrical experience bring home 3D television sets, that will lead to 3D video games, right? Maybe. Read on for more discussion of Avatar's potential impact on your home gaming rig.
While watching Avatar, I was struck by how "game-y" the movie was. When Jake was in training, I knew the "falling down the big leaves" trick would come in later and could picture using them as a quick escape route in a game. The "upgrading mounts" the character rides were straight out of a video game, and the asymmetrical warfare between the humans and the Na'vi seemed perfect for a game adaptation. However, no one seems too enamored with the official Avatar video game, so it looks like we'll be waiting a while before a game captures what made the movie such a big hit. And what made the movie a smash? Immersion.

Ask anyone why they like Avatar, and chances are it won't be the plot or the characters, it's the richness and the detail of its world. Especially in 3D, the movie makes you feel like you're on the world of Pandora. While I'd love to see games that engulf the player in the same type of rich 3D world, I could stop writing here and say that it ain't happening any time soon. There are many, many hurdles to be overcome before Avatar manages to have any significant impact on the way we play games. But I think it will have an impact in the long run, so let's break it down.

First, for Avatar to really affect the way we play game, it has to be more than a theatrical smash (which it clearly already is). It has to be a home video smash. It has to make viewers want to not only own the movie, but own a 3D version of a movie and the equipment to play it in 3D. Driving up the number of 3D-capable televisions would then drive up interest in creating 3D games.* This, frankly, isn't going to happen. Even though several 3D sets will be available on the market this year, the industry is predicting that they won't become common for 5 to 10 years, and 3D televisions that don't require special glasses are 10 to 15 years away. Even if 3D TVs become a bigger hit than expected, 3D content will still be an issue. The early sets will be able to play 3D broadcasts, a 3D-capable storage medium isn't here yet. 3D Blu-ray discs are in the works and will probably be here soon, but aren't quite ready. So even if 3D TVs, explode, your copy of Avatar won't feature the same 3D tech, and neither will your games.

So again, the short answer is that there won't be any major affect on gaming due to Avatar's popularity. But it just might in the long view. 3D televisions would have happened eventually with or without the popularity of the film, and by the time 3D televisions and 3D home media are common, Avatar itself will be old news. But without a big hit 3D film like Avatar, would 3D be such a big part of the national entertainment discussion? Probably not. Right now, there are executives in the entertainment business trying to figure out how to capitalize on the Avatar phenomenon. Years down the road when you're finally playing 3D video games on your television, 3D movies will be so standard that you won't even remember Avatar, but there's no denying that it's the film that brought 3D to mainstream. That sort of thing has ripples, even if those ripples take years to have a major effect.  

Source: www.joystickdivision.com/2010/01/can_avatar_change_gaming.php