Manchester City partners with Sony Metaverse

2 min read

Manchester City partners with Sony to enter the Metaverse

City Football Group, the owners of Manchester City, have announced a global partnership with Sony to develop new digital fan experiences and specifically a virtual world for fans of the club.

The initial step of this collaboration will be a proof of concept, in which real-world digital capture technologies will be utilized to bring match experiences into a virtual environment using Sony's Hawk Eye technology. 'At Manchester City, we have a strong pedigree of continuously embracing the latest technologies to enhance our operation with a particular focus on exploring ways to engage and entertain our global fanbase,' said Nuria Tarre, chief marketing and fan experience officer at City Football Group.

City has entered the development stage of an intriguing initiative with Sony, which will produce immersive digital fan experiences never seen before in football. We're excited to kick off this partnership and bring together Sony's industry-leading technology with Manchester City's global fan base. City Football Group, which established a Metaverse squad many months ago, is ahead of the rest of the Premier League in terms of virtual world strategy. A digital reproduction of the Etihad Stadium will serve as the virtual world's center point, and don't be shocked if replica jerseys will be offered as virtual items.

Manchester City is the first Premier League side to go virtual, although not being the first football team to do so. Ajax re-created its renowned Johan Cruyff Arena stadium within Second Life a few years ago and broadcast matches to residents, allowing supporters from all over the globe to join and support their team.

Consider this idea for a moment.... The capacity of the real world Etihad Stadium is 55,000, however, a virtual stadium's capacity is almost unlimited. Manchester City will offer virtual tickets (even as NFTs) to supporters all around the world because of this. In terms of the real experience, matches might be beamed into displays inside the virtual stadium (media rights pending). It may even be able to re-create live matches digitally, implying the function Hawk Eye may play in this situation. It's really cool! This is an excellent illustration of how companies can use the Metaverse to supplement and improve their interactions with consumers, or fans.

The article was written by Amit Caesar.

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