It’s Official: Avatar 3D Exclusive to Panasonic Plasmas

It’s been rumored for a long time now and it’s finally come to pass: Avatar is coming to Blu-ray 3D, exclusive to purchasers Panasonic Viera 3D plasma televisions, possibly bundled with Blu-ray players and glasses. The good news is that Panasonic is taking into account the fact that there is virtually no 3D software on the market yet, and a lot of people who’ve dropped a hefty chunk of change on their televisions already; they’re looking for ways to offer the disc to existing customers. In addition, the program may be extended to those who purchase Panasonic 3D Blu-ray players, so at least if you’re spending $300 to get Avatar 3D on Ebay, you’re getting a good piece of kit with it.

With Sony taking a similar route with Alice in Wonderland and This is It, and Samsung glomming onto How to Train Your Dragon and the Shrek Quadrilogy exclusive, early adopters are understandably miffed that they only have exactly one Blu-ray 3D title they can actually buy for their expensive rigs. While most of these discs will end up at retail eventually, the first batch is unlikely to show up before spring, and the dearth of content is really starting to chafe. While 3D is currently in soft launch mode, and the real push being looked at for next Christmas, studios and hardware manufacturers would do well to consider similar offers themselves to supply 3D discs to owners of any and all of their 3D hardware for a modest price. Not only will this keep a flow of customers upgrading their players, but it’d go a long way to ameliorating the frustration until 3D penetration hits the point where exclusives are no longer practical.

Via [TWICE]