BioWare's Greg Zeschuk

Simply put, it's expensive. It's really expensive. To ask someone to throw away their $1000 television, put it in the basement and buy a $1500 television, and get the glasses which are obtrusive and expensive, it's going to complicate the process. It's expensive, but it comes down to "is the experience better or the same?" It is better. Overtime you can see that watching sports is better. Games, when they are done well in 3D, are absolutely better. Part of the problem is the perception that's it's super gimmicky. The first 3D movies were simply made to throw objects at the screen. I sat through a kids' movie and there were all these sequences where there was no way they would have had them in the move, they weren't that great from a story perspective, other than they were good for 3D effects. That's the entirely wrong way to do it, this big gimmicky construction. Once we get past that, once we get past the adoption and the costs, the glasses... but that's a long way away.

The new motion controls are very interesting and quite powerful. Phase one of those is the dancing, fitness and party games, the sword-swinging games. The next phase is where it gets really interesting when developers like us can tear it all down and ask "what can we actually do in a game like Mass Effect?" Can we create a greater sense of immersion during conversations by using gestures? I think we probably could and I think that's where we'll explore. We're not going to do a party game, we're not going to do Dance Dance Krogan for Mass Effect. The reality is it's going to have a really positive impact. There's that impediment of a controller but hardcore gamers are never going to give that up. It might be nice to see a hybrid of a controller used with additional gesture on the side for immersive elements. So we'll see it go from family entertainment and then broaden out.

I think there is an opportunity. The moment you can really put the player in the scene as an actor, that gets really interesting because you're stepping away from being a voyeur and the feeling of being an actor can be very powerful, but it depends on how you do that. An example would be, well you can't look away from the screen because you're then back in the real world, so you're limited by the gestures and the things you can do. But if you can do movements that make you feel like you're there and that a three dimensional character is acting what you're acting, in such a way that it's creating a new sense of immersion, then that's where the win is.

I think it's really interesting, largely because it solves a lot of the problems with 3D. The price issue, and I don't have to have a pair of crazy glasses hooked up to it. The fact that it feels more natural because you just adjust the focal distance. We all have different eyes and distances that work for you so you play with that and it really works. Again, it's hilarious that Nintendo is doing it because once again they've trumped everyone in a clever way. Everyone else is doing what they already did [with motion control] five years ago and here they are out in front again. I'm curious to see what happens because at the end of the day it's still a limited device, it's more multiplayer focused, but the key thing is how do you connect it to online? Nintendo has always had a mixed stance, but online to me is actually part of the future and you need to be offering something significant in that respect.

I personally find it incredibly exciting and that is the thing that can be the most transformative of anything at a fundamental level. But the implementation is everything. The dark side of that is that it still boggles my mind about how it can be technically done effectively. Clusters of computing power located close to the customer to solve the whole internet networking problem, that makes sense to me. It's interesting that the way Gaikai is on everything – it's a web service, it's not just some set-top box. It's literally everything. It's very exciting that it can break down that barrier and lead to the higher sense of trial. What happened in places like China with free-to-play games exploding, was largely because people are able to try something out. They try something and if they like it they spend money on it. I think that can drive incredible commerce into our funnel that isn't constrained by worrying about what platform a game is on. With cloud services you can play it on whatever, you get access to the game and you're away.