IFA 2012: Prepare To Say Goodbye To Split Screen Gaming

Do you remember the days of playing on Call of Duty with two or three of your friends, seeing four split screens pop up, and forgetting which screen you character was in? Well, thanks to a new piece of technology being released by Sony, gamers can look forward to waving goodbye to splitscreen gaming for good. At the IFA Trade Show in Berlin this week, I was lucky enough to have been sent over to review some new Sony gadgets by What Culture. One of the most impressive pieces of tech I got to play around with was SimulView. Thanks to Simulview, gamers can now play their favourite multiplayer split screen games in the privacy of a pair of 3D glasses. The image from the television during play is projected into these glasses, giving each player their own unique view of the game they're playing. See SimulView technology in action below: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9JqTe_ol1Q At IFA, the game on display was Gran Turismo 5. Without wearing the glasses, all I saw was two transparent cars moving along a track, the images blurring into each other. However, when I put the glasses on, one of the cars became solid - this was the car I was controlling. The way this works is that two images of the same scene are sent at different perspectives to each of your eyes. Your brain automatically converts the difference between the two images, thereby creating the illusion of depth and giving each player their own unique view of the action. The glasses themselves are stylish and lightweight, and make for much more immersive gameplay. Other players can no longer watch your character walking around, just waiting to jump from around a corner and blindside you, and best of all, you and your friends can enjoy the whole span of a TV screen, rather than half and half! SimulView will only work on a Sony 3D display screen and is set for a November release. At the moment, only five titles are available for SimulView, and these are the aforementioned Gran Turismo Five, Motorstorm, Motorstorm Apocalypse, MLB 12, Killzone 3 and Super Stardust HD. More titles of course will be made available for SimulView gaming in time.