Sony Strengthens its Metaverse Game, it Acquires Beyond Sports!
Sony strengthens its metaverse game by acquiring the 3D imagining company, Beyond Sports
Sony has recently completed the acquisition of Beyond Sports, a company that specializes in producing 3D animation using real-world data. With this acquisition, the company is reportedly now able to provide a full metaverse experience for sports matches, complete with technology from other companies already in its portfolio.
Sony’s Beyond Sports acquisition brings it closer to the sports metaverse
Sony is now venturing into the sports metaverse. Beyond Sports, a 3D imaging and animation company with technology to transform real information from a sports match into a metaverse representation was recently acquired by the company. The purchase price was not disclosed, but it is estimated to be around US$70 million, according to Nikkei estimates. This acquisition, combined with the technology of Hawk-Eye Innovations, another company owned by the conglomerate, will enable the company to produce content related to basketball, baseball, tennis, and football matches in real time. Hawk-Eye Innovations, acquired in 2011, creates technology that allows pinpointing the position of the ball at any time and has been used by organizations such as the National Football League (NFL) and the National Hockey League (NHL). When these two are combined, Sony may be able to create a digital, accurate representation of a field or court, complete with realistic ball and player movement.
The Market for Virtual Sports
Another Sony-owned company may be able to fill the distribution gap and bring these experiences to audiences. Pulselive, which operates several sites for sports teams and organizations, would be able to include these metaverse experiences on these sites, creating a new revenue stream and attempting to popularise this new perspective on sports. Sony may also be able to provide metaverse matches by utilizing its Playstation console line as a distribution device. The company is working on a virtual reality (VR) headset for its console, dubbed Playstation VR 2, which is expected to be released in February 2023 and could be used to enjoy these metaverse experiences in a more immersive manner. Sony has already dabbled in the metaverse and NFT (non-fungible token) technology, filing patents to use NFTs to track the history and ownership of in-game assets. Sony CEO Kenichiro Yoshida has previously stated that Sony’s “first priority is to create a metaverse around entertainment,” using all of the brand’s tools to that end.
