Sony acquires Beyond Sports to foray into sports metaverse

Sony recently closed the acquisition of Beyond Sports, a 3D animation and imaging company that possesses tech to transform accurate information from a sports match into a representation in the metaverse. 

Along with the technology of Hawk-Eye Innovations (another company owned by the conglomerate), this purchase will allow the company to produce real-time content relating to basketball, baseball, tennis, and football matches. 

Hawk-Eye Innovations, acquired in 2011, produces tech that allows pinpointing the ball’s position at any time and has been used by the National Hockey League (NHL) and National Football League (NFL).

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Combining the technology from these two companies might allow Sony to create a digital representation of a court or a field featuring realistic ball and player movement. 

Sony has already ventured into NFT (non-fungible token) technology and metaverse, filing a set of patents to use NFTs to track the history and ownership of in-game assets. Sony CEO Kenichiro Yoshida has also stated that Sony’s priority is to create a metaverse around entertainment with the help of all of the brand’s tools.