At E3, Nintendo mercilessly mocked the idea of wearing glasses to experience 3D. The company's newest handheld, the 3DS, gives you a brilliant 3D effect without requiring expensive or annoying glasses, and Nintendo seemed happy to point out that advantage. It didn't help that the gathered press and bloggers left Nintendo's event to go straight to Sony's press conference... where we were handed 3D glasses upon entrance. Ouch.

Sony has responded to Nintendo's dismissive tone, and the company seems oddly hurt by the attacks.

"I have hope that they have a broader perspective with 3D," Sony's Worldwide Studios Shuhei Yoshida told IGN. "When you listen to what they are saying about the effect of 3D perspective to the games, they are saying the same message we are, but they don't have to bash some small part of what the other company is doing."

It's a defensive tone, but make no mistake: the glasses are not a small part of what Sony is doing, if E3 is any indication. The 3D gameplay of Killzone 3, with the audience wearing those infernal glasses, was a centerpiece of the company's presentation. Gran Turismo 5 was shown in 3D, and many of the demos on the show floor used both 3D and the PlayStation Move to great effect.

Sony is pushing 3D in a big way, and right now the technology it uses requires glasses. That isn't going to change any time soon.

Nintendo's advantage

Nintendo sells video games and video game hardware. Outside of keeping their Hanafuda card production going for the sake of history, that's all they do. To put it lightly, they are very, very good at it. Nintendo attacks every problem by looking at what is cost effective for both the company and consumer, and then it looks at how technology will enhance the games. It's a focused, profitable, tight business.

Sony works differently. Count how many businesses it's juggling: televisions, audio equipment, cameras, movies, music, video games... the list goes on. Sony isn't backing 3D with all it has because it's the best thing for games; it's pushing the technology so the other parts of the company can sell you a new television, extra glasses, and Sony films in 3D on Blu-ray.

3D becoming an accepted way to consume content at home will help nearly every one of Sony's core businesses, and the company sees gaming as a way to help that happen.

"I think as an industry we should preach this new perspective, from a very large cinema screen to a small portable, because that helps advancing the games and the game industry," Yoshida continued. "We'd like to work together to promote 3D."

But Nintendo doesn't really care about 3D as something that is permanent or even necessary for gaming; it is simply technology that works for the next generation of their portable gaming systems. It's attractive because Nintendo has a standard for its 3D: every system will have the same size screen and use the same technology, and the cost to the consumer shouldn't be much more than a standard DS.

Sony, on the other hand, wants you to buy a costly new television—although prices are sure to come down—and every member of your family will of course need glasses to realize the effect. Nintendo's solution is self-contained, universal, and should be inexpensive. Sony's requires peripherals, will support different screens with evolving technology, and requires a significant investment.

Sony makes the mistake of assuming that Nintendo is interested in 3D when Nintendo is only interested in the 3DS.

We polled our readers in January about their own plans for 3D, and only 8 percent were looking forward to buying a 3D display. Sixty-six percent said that they would get 3D when it came free with their televisions. Sony hopes that by leveraging the full force of its different content divisions, it can bring those numbers up. Nintendo, on the other hand, wants to sell you one sub-$200 piece of hardware and then a truckload of games.

It's a piece of hardware, it should be noted, that enjoyed a three-hour wait and crushing lines at E3... exactly the experience the now-legendary Nintendo Wii found during its first E3. In the next few years, which technology do you think will find more general-interest welcome?