After the spectacular flop of 3D TVs, Samsung is once again trying to revive 3D, this time with glasses-free gaming monitors. The effort is gaining some traction, with 120 games promised by year-end, but major caveats remain.
Launched in 2025, Samsung's first glasses-free 3D monitor with eye-tracking is the best so far, but still far from great.
The company does, however, have a more promising roadmap for 6K 3D on LCD and eventually 3D on OLED, which could significantly improve 3D picture quality.
120 games by year-end
When unveiled in 2025, Samsung's 3D monitor supported just one game, The First Berserker. The plan was to expand to around 10 titles by launch in Q2 2025, including Lies of P.
Samsung has since continued pushing developers and partners to support its 3D push. It now expects more than 120 games to be playable in 3D by the end of 2026, up from around 60 today.
- "The addition of Hell Is Us and Cronos: The New Dawn expands Samsung's 3D gaming library, which currently supports more than 60 titles – including The First Berserker: Khazan, Stellar Blade, Lies of P: Overture and Mongil: Star Drive. With these additions, the company's selection of 3D games is on track to reach over 120 titles by the end of 2026," Samsung said at the GDC Festival of Gaming in San Francisco.
The action-adventure Hell Is Us arrives in 3D in March, while the survival-horror Cronos: The New Dawn will follow later this year. Both will be available through the company's 3D Hub on the monitor.
Samsung's first 'Odyssey 3D' LCD monitor. Photo: FlatpanelsHDA major caveat
There is, however, a major caveat to those numbers. Of the roughly 60 games currently available in 3D, only three are native with full eye-tracking support.
The rest rely on UEVR (Universal Unreal Engine VR injector), which converts Unreal Engine 4 and 5 games to stereoscopic 3D. It works, but it is a workaround. Crucially, eye-tracking is not supported, making the 3D effect less convincing on Samsung's monitor.
Fans are maintaining a list of compatible 3D games on Reddit here.
A decent start
Even so, delivering glasses-free 3D monitors that actually work and a projected 120 compatible games within roughly a year and a half is a decent start.
The question becomes whether Samsung can move beyond workarounds and improve the underlying technology with OLED and higher resolution, while also expanding the ecosystem?
We are not advocating a return of 3D TVs or putting 3D in mainstream monitors. Instead, we think Samsung would be better off working more closely with VR headset makers to grow the user base. 3D gaming on a proper headset – especially with micro-OLED – remains far superior to what is currently possible on a monitor.
Let's see where things stand in two to three years.
