Sony is not certain there is a market in Australia for their innovative PlayStation-branded 3D display.
 

The 24-inch 3D screen will go on sale in Australia from November 3 for $699.95 exclusive to Harvey Norman as a test of local market demand.
 

The LED 1080p display was unveiled at the Electronic Entertainment Expo in June and features SimulView technology which can show two different full screen high-definition images to players enjoying a multi-player game instead of split-screen action.
 

"We think the technology is pretty exciting for core gamers," says Sony Computer Entertainment Australia\'s managing director Michael Ephraim. "To be able to play two gamers on one screen, and 3D gaming, is certainly appealing."
 

But Mr Ephraim says there is some debate over whether there is a market for the screen in Australia, despite the positive reaction from the gaming community.
 

" We’re going to test it because it is innovative technology," Mr Ephraim says.  "We really wanted to test it before we made a big commitment because it’s not like a Memory Stick kind of product, there are long lead times on manufacturing, high price.
 

"I can tell you that we will sell it initially exclusively through Harvey Norman," Mr Ephraim told Screen Play. "It is Harvey Norman embracing new technology and us having a partner there that we can test it with.
 

"If it goes extremely well, we’ll keep supporting it. It is a high ticket price item and there is 3D TVs out there, we just want to make sure there’s a market for it."
 

The PlayStation 3 has a library of over 100 games that support stereoscopic 3D, but the take-up of 3D displays has been lower than many analysts predicted.
 

When asked why hasn\'t the 3D format taken off as anticipated, Mr Ephraim jokes that the reasons could fill a book. "It’s all been debated out there in the media," he says. "Maybe the TVs came out a bit earlier than the content was available."
 

"I don’t think 3D is finished, it\'s just that we expected it to take off much faster than what happened. The thinking was that everything was going to be 3D, but there is content more suited to 3D than others. You don’t want to see a romance in 3D as much as you want to see an action or sports event in 3D."
 

Mr Ephraim says Sony remains confident that games will be a significant driver for 3D adoption. "We have always said gaming can have a big impact on 3D," he says. "I’ve seen some things in my life in the gaming industry. I was blown away by Uncharted 3 in 3D, it looks absolutely amazing. It really has the depth of 3D that brings the game into your living room.
 

" 3D gaming will keep 3D going, and 3D movies are happening, sports programs. I think it was Bill Gates who said technology doesn’t happen as fast as we think, but when it does happen, it happens bigger than we think. I think that’s very applicable to 3D."
 

But one device which Sony thinks got 3D wrong is Nintendo\'s handheld 3DS console. Early 3DS sales have not met Nintendo\'s expectations, and in an unprecedented move for the Japanese gaming giant, it slashed the price of the device just four months after it first launched.  
 

"3DS was being sold primarily, almost exclusively, on the back of 3D gaming," says Mr Ephraim. "3D is a stereoscopic experience where you expect the character to jump out of the screen and fly by your ears. 3DS did not offer that. It wasn’t stereoscopic 3D, which you can only achieve through glasses.
 

"Maybe that was a flawed key driver for a new device. I say maybe, but the results say yes, that it was flawed. The results have not been what they wanted.
 

"You could argue that maybe all the games haven’t come out for it, but personally, I don’t think somebody wants a watered-down 3D experience after they have watched television and movies where bullets are flying around their ears. You don’t get that experience (with 3DS)."
 

Sony\'s upcoming PlayStation Vita handheld will not feature 3D.
 

"We don’t think you can talk about the two (3DS and Vita) in the same breath," Mr Ephraim says. "With Vita, you’ll notice that the only thing we don’t have is 3D. Because we never believed that 3D was a selling point for a handheld.
 

"People are used to the big movie Avatar, that kind of 3D experience, totally immersive, and a handheld just can’t deliver that without glasses."