Sony And Manchester City Make Metaverses, Focus On Interplay With Players

Manchester City is to build its metaverse world. (photo: dock. man.city)

JAKARTA - Sony is collaborating with the Manchester City football club to build its metaverse world in an application introduced at the 2023 Consumer Electronics Show (CES).

Shown in a video, Sony and Manchester City call it proof of concept, fans can participate in the team's virtual version of the Etihad Stadium with their own custom avatars.

In the video, a virtual avatar can be seen running around the stadium and on the pitch itself, occasionally dancing and celebrating together.

"Avatar, 3D images, and other unique expressions for the metaverse will allow players to communicate in new ways," said Sony's Senior Product Planning Officer, Namibia Iwamoto during the company's presentation at CES 2023.

The proof of Sony's concept also features a huge virtual reenactment of the spotlight from various angles, including from the perspective of each player. There is one impressive clip, showing from the point of view of goalkeepers as they try to track the ball among many players.

However, Sony and Manchester City's metaverses seem to be made for devices with lower specifications, where one clip shows people can use their smartphones and laptops instead of virtual reality headsets like Meta's.

In a statement, Sony confirmed the participants would be able to create avatars on their smartphones. Sony spokesman Yo Kikuchi said the metaverse app would be released this year, but it's unclear if the creation of avatars, virtual stadiums and highlights will all be included in the app.

It is not known for sure whether it will be launched globally. This partnership was first announced in November 2021. At that time, Sony and Manchester City both described the work as proof of concept and called the word metaverse.

According to The Verge, Monday, January 9, Sony actually talked a lot about the metaverse, in June last year too, Sony CEO Kenichiro Yoshida said the metaverse is the company's new growth area and the company's first priority is to make the metaverse about entertainment.

Given Sony's support in video games, movies, technology, music, and more, the company can be recognized as having adequate equipment to get into the metaverse.

Moreover, Sony has also acquired Bungie, the status maker last year and has invested billions of dollars in Epic Games, which means Sony may be able to get good advice from some of the best developers to engage in the virtual world.