Popular football club Manchester City is gearing up to enter the metaverse, in partnership with Sony. For the English soccer club’s many fans around the world, this will be an opportunity to enter a virtual version of the team’s stadium and take part in new digital experiences. Let’s deep dive into what this Man City news means for fans.
What does the Man City news mean for fans?
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This partnership between Sony and the current Premier League champions is still in the development stage, but it is unprecedented in the world of soccer. For the moment, the experience consists only of a virtual visit to the Etihad Stadium, with the promise of more to come.
Eventually, the idea is that fans will be able to teleport into this virtual stadium, each under the guise of their own avatar. The players’ avatars are already able to move around on the field. Each player has already been equipped with sensors in order to reproduce their way of moving and playing with the ball.
The idea is to develop new ways of interacting and engaging with fans, in the form of online content and services, including in a virtual world, yet to be discovered. The goal is to create a global community of fans who can come together to interact with each other and their favourite team, all in avatar form, and in a virtual recreation of the Etihad Stadium in Manchester.
Facebook’s metaverse has been expanding in interesting ways
Most leaders at #CES2023 said they are banking on virtual world expansion this year, showing future innovation toward Web3 and the metaverse hasn’t slowed down https://t.co/qZ6qW6Fh9A pic.twitter.com/HfZi3tMSie
— Variety (@Variety) January 9, 2023
We have recently been seeing a trend of the metaverse expanding to different avenues. For instance, Decentraland, the 2nd edition of the Metaverse Fashion Week, will also take place in March this year.
For the moment, Sony is focusing on demonstrating its expertise on this project (as it did recently at CES in Las Vegas), without giving any more information on when this new service might be available to fans.
This story is published via AFP Relaxnews
(Main image credits: Courtesy Pexels/Eugene Capon, Tembela Bohle)
(Feature image credits: Courtesy Pexels/Eugene Capon)
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Answer: Yes, you will now be able to virtually attend Manchester City's matches on Facebook's metaverse.
Answer: While you can't play football in the metaverse, there are other games you can play in the virtual world.
Answer: Manchester City is planning on creating a virtual Etihad Stadium that will have unlimited seating capacity.
