Sony Group Corporation (Sony) recently launched FavoriteSpace, a new service designed to energize sports fan communities by offering new ways to enjoy sports. Making the most of Sony's technology and entertainment expertise, FavoriteSpace will deliver new sports content and create a social entertainment space where fans can share their passion for their favorites.
As part of the new service, Sony today launched the FavoriteSpace smartphone app.*1 This first offering in the app is a dedicated virtual space (an "area") where users can enjoy content from Manchester City Football Club in a variety of ways.
With FavoriteSpace, Sony will provide a venue for fans who share the same "favorites" to interact, as well as to connect with teams and players. By enriching the activities of sports fans both in physical and virtual space, Sony aims to create new experience value that will increase engagement among existing fans and also help to win new fans.
With the app, users can visit virtual "areas" featuring the history and philosophy of their favorite sports teams with their avatars and enjoy team-specific content and interaction with other fans. Fans can experience the same zeal and excitement they would in the physical world in a uniquely virtual way by viewing immersive 3DCG content that leverage technologies such as the tracking system of Hawk-Eye Innovations, a Sony group company. In the development of the Manchester City Area, the first team area to launch, Sony has worked with Manchester City as the club's official Virtual Fan Engagement Partner since 2021 to conduct a proof of concept (PoC) and incorporate feedback from fans. Going forward, Sony will expand the experience by providing more areas and content for various teams and other sports.
1. A New Way to Enjoy Sports, Beyond Space and Time
Manchester City's home, the Etihad Stadium, has been faithfully reproduced in virtual space, and fans can visit anytime with their avatars. At the virtual stadium, fans can enjoy the kind of immersive virtual content that is only possible in virtual space, such as Immersive Highlights, which allow them to freely view highlights of past home games in 3DCG from any viewpoint.
2. Bonding Fans, Players, and the Team
Fans gathered as avatars in the virtual space can share their thoughts and passion for their team beyond nationality and language by communicating through emoticons, stamps, and interactions such as putting arms around each other's shoulders. In addition, fans can express their support for the team in various ways, such as participating in events held in virtual space on actual match days, customizing their avatars with uniforms and goods, and creating fan banners. By responding to fans showing support in these ways, the team and the players can also interact with the fan community, thereby building even more unity among the fans and their team.
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