Sony and Manchester City, one of the world's most successful football clubs, have partnered for a new metaverse project. The PlayStation owner will be making use of all of its know-how to build a virtual football stadium created by members of Sony's VR team. The virtual Etihad Stadium means fans will be able to meet up in VR to watch games, attend concerts, and more.
Given Sony's announcement of PSVR 2 and the success of PlayStation 5, it's not too far a leap to suggest this deal marks Sony's tentative steps into a PS5 metaverse. Who'd have thought it would look a lot like FIFA?
Sony's press release states: "Sony will conduct a PoC (proof of concept) with Manchester City, aiming to develop new forms of digital content and services that integrate the physical and virtual worlds to excite and engage both existing and next generation of sports fans across the globe."
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Sony will be using its sport and games tech to create a metaverse-ready football stadium (Image credit: Sony)
Sony is using this football 'proof of concept' to develop and combine some of its newest technology. Sony has some incredible image analysis and sensing tech, along with tracking data created by its Hawk-Eye Innovations system – used in sport to track balls, players and performance data for replays and infographics.
The idea appears to mix live football viewing with interactive graphics and data – imagine watching a sports match inside the Etihad Stadium from anywhere in the world, and being able to call up a player's stats as you watch, or even replay events just for you, inside your PSVR 2 headset.
Sony's PSVR 2 tech and the broad take-up of PS5 suggests not only is Sony creating an impressive set of metaverse tools but it has a way of getting these future virtual spaces into living rooms. Read how Sony's football project fits into wider Web3 advances, in our guide what is the metaverse?
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Ian Dean is Editor, Digital Arts & 3D at Creative Bloq, and the former editor of many leading magazines. These titles included ImagineFX, 3D World and video game titles Play and Official PlayStation Magazine. Ian launched Xbox magazine X360 and edited PlayStation World. For Creative Bloq, Ian combines his experiences to bring the latest news on digital art, VFX and video games and tech, and in his spare time he doodles in Procreate, ArtRage, and Rebelle while finding time to play Xbox and PS5.
