Sony Acquires Beyond Sports to Expand Metaverse Solutions

Sports entertainment is set to receive a massive boost with new immersive possibilities

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Sony Beyond Sports
Mixed RealityNews Analysis

Published: November 25, 2022

Demond Cureton

Japanese electronics giant Sony recently bought out Beyond Sports, allowing the former to build massive metaverse content for sporting events. it announced this week.

Beyond Sports develops real-world data for 3D animations, and its technologies will seamlessly integrate with Sony’s growing portfolio of immersive solutions. According to Nikkei estimates, the deal could reach $70 million USD in value.

Technologies from Beyond Sports and recently-acquired Hawk-Eye Innovations will develop real-time 3D (RT3D) content for baseball, tennis, basketball, and football matches.

Hawk-Eye Innovations’ technologies track ball positions at sports matches in real-time. Sports organisations such as the National Football League (NFL) and National Hockey League (NHL) have commissioned the company for its product solutions.

With the two firms, Sony can build digital twins of sports pitches and courts with RT3D models of players and sports balls.

Pulselive, another Sony-owned enterprise, can also provide metaverse live-streaming technologies to audiences and additional revenue streams for companies, potentially also on PlayStation consoles.

Such future integrations could take place on Sony’s upcoming PSVR 2 device, which is expected to release in February of next year.

Sony ‘Ups Its Game’ in Metaverse Technologies

The news comes after the company filed a patent for blockchain technologies for the PSVR 2 to trade non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and other digital content. Players can use the novel tools to buy and sell in-game content and identify metadata, ownership, and other key details for immersive content.

Sony also aims to boost its metaverse solutions by leveraging its expertise in gaming and music, allowing fans to socialise and join gaming communities. Sony further boosted its positioning in the metaverse market after acquiring Bungie Studios, the original creative studio for XBOX’s blockbuster title Halo.

Kenichiro Yoshida, Sony Group Chief Executive, said in a recent statement the Metaverse was “simultaneously a social environment, as well as a live networking space where gaming, music, films and anime intersect.”

Rival firm Microsoft bought Activision Blizzard to expand its portfolio of solutions in a historic $68 billion deal. This has greatly expanded Microsoft’s future ambitions for metaverse technologies such as cloud computing, digital avatars, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and others.

Sony Interactive Entertainment is also set to join massive tech giants such as Magic Leap, AT&T, Amazon, Qualcomm, Unity, Lenovo, and many others at the Immerse Global Summit (IGS) 2022 in Miami, Florida. The massive event will rally the global tech community to explore the future of web3 and the Metaverse, the successor to the Internet, with the rise of emerging technologies.

 

Digital TwinEntertainmentGamingImmersive ExperienceIndustry 4.0SportsVirtual Events

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