Microsoft Game Studio creative director Habib Zargarpour reckons it's up to gaming to popularise stereoscopic 3D.

The first 3D TV sets, which require the use of 3D glasses, have already released this year with more to come in the summer, and Zargarpour says 3D's wider success will be "up to the game content... much more so than film and broadcast".

3D effects, he explains, are both easier to achieve and better suited to gaming simply because "we're already in a digital medium, we're already displaying it on a digital device," unlike live-action movies, which need to be filmed with a special dual-lens camera and face new challenges with shooting in 3D.

"People aren't going to buy those TVs unless there's stuff to do with it", he told Gamasutra, going on to say he believes gaming in 3D will be more interesting to consumers than watching 3D Blu-ray films, the first of which are also due to arrive later this year.

Zargarpour says that 3D effects, combined with the motion controls of today's gaming systems "may truly become the next level for video game interactivity". On PS3 and 360, however, rendering 3D will come with a performance hit, Zargarpour predicting that 30 frames per second and 720p resolution will become the norm for AAA games in 3D.

If gaming is key, 3D's seriously gonna struggle to go mainstream

The effect was awesome the one time I tried them.

Nobody's gonna want to buy a new TV for years yet unless the price of the 3D TVs gets ridiculously cheap ridiculously quickly, which I can't see at all since the manufacturers seem to think they're on to a winner.

I'm also thinking a lot of gaming is done in kids' bedrooms, where that becomes even less of an option realistically.

Doesn't help that most people have a slightly outdated notion of 3D and you'll still have to wear glasses that might get uncomfortable after a while. And all this when the big players would also like to sell you some motion-tech... Gaming seems to run on what I feel are likely to be fads these days