At the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2023, Sony showcased a brief look of the metaverse experience that the company is building in partnership with the football club Manchester City.
According to a press release, Sony and Manchester City call this metaverse experience a “proof of concept” (PoC). This special experience will enable players to participate in activities or events with their own custom avatars at a virtual version of the team’s Etihad Stadium.
In an official video posted by Sony, one can see virtual avatars running around the stadium field, dancing and celebrating together. A senior product planner at Sony, Nami Iwamoto, said that avatars, 3D images, and other expressions, which are unique to the metaverse, will allow players to communicate in a new way.
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Another video by the company explained how Sony used only seven sensors to record volumetric data and footage of Manchester City players to recreate them in this metaverse space digitally.
According to Sony’s spokesperson Yo Kikuchi, the app will be released this year. However, it is still unclear whether the virtual stadium, avatar creation, and highlights will be included in that application.
The partnership was first announced in November of 2021. At the time, both Manchester City and Sony used the term metaverse to address the initiative and described the effort as a PoC.
