3D doesn't work on 1 in 10 people

Look to the left of you. Now look to the right. Now look in seven other directions. One of you can't see 3D images properly.

That's according to UK charity The Eyecare Trust, which has explained on its website that six million people in the UK are unable to enjoy films like Avatar because they lack proper binocular vision, rather than because it's incredibly trite.

“[M]ore than one in ten of us (12%) has a visual impairment that means our brains are unable to correctly process the individual images that are transmitted to it via our left and right eyes.

“This leads to an inconsistency in viewing the three spatial dimensions (height, width and depth) required to enjoy 3-D films in all their glory.”

Poor binocular vision doesn't just spoil afflicted cinema-goers' and gamers' (and my) fun, however. It can also lead to headaches, difficulty reading, and screen fatigue from staring at a screen too long. Many sufferers don't know they're affected until they try to watching something in 3D.

Significantly for Nintendo and other video game companies hoping to capitalise on the current mass voyage into the third dimension, poor binocular vision could render their products useless or even painful to a significant proportion of their audience.