As the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) 2018 comes to a close, it is time for another entry of This Week In VR Sport. VRFocus brings you a number of sports related virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) stories every weekend and this week, there are some goodies. Byond have created a virtual tour of the FIFA World Cup Trophy Tour by Coca-Cola, Sprint Vector and Oculus step up their eSports scene and ePlay Digital launch their Big Shot AR app into beta.
ByondXR Powers FIFA World Cup Trophy Tour by Coca-Cola Experience
ByondXR have recently launched a 360-degree tour of the official Coca-Cola/FIFA World Cup Trophy Tour. This immersive VR/AR experience is designed to give viewers an interactive fly through and an up-close-and-personal view of the Coca-Cola plane, which has embedded relevant media and social content found within.
The team are ByondXR have built the immersive experience, which is designed to be used high-end VR headsets such as the HTC Vive, to help promote the World Cup and offer viewers something they might not be use to. Though the FIFA World Cup Trophy Tour by Coca-Cola was taken to more than 50 countries ahead of the tournament in Russia, plenty of people would have missed out on it. This is why the experience is a perfect fit for VR/AR, allowing viewers that feeling of being that in person without even needing to leave their house.
“The core of this digital and social campaign has been to develop content and capabilities to help enable the storytelling across the entire FIFA World Cup campaign in new engaging ways,” said Eran Galil, CTO at ByondXR. “This experience allows us to do that all the way through to the final whistle.”
ByondXR uses the latest in advanced technology to empower brands, agencies and retailers to allow them to engage with their customers in exciting ways, using interactive AR/VR/360-degree experiences. Offering an immersive suite, companies can quickly deploy virtual stores and XR experiences across mobile, web and AR/VR headsets.
Sprint Vector Kick Off ESL Qualifiers
Fast paced VR racing title Sprint Vector have announced the start of their ESL qualifiers for those looking to become a VR eSports star. Ever Friday throughout this month, ESL will be hosting an open online qualifier for Sprint Vector players around the world through Oculus Home and Steam.
There are reasons to care about this though, as the Oculus-sponsored VR League will feature over $2,000 (USD) in prize money from the online qualifiers and a share of $25,000 (USD) in the finals. Elsewhere, Community Cup champs will be given their own Oculus Rift and Oculus Touch setup and a chance to complete in the finals for $25,000 (USD) prize pool, which is available thorough Steam.
If you are looking to enter the VR League and Community Cups then you can do so via the official website.
VRFocus’ Senior Staff Writer Peter Graham reviewed Sprint Vector saying: “There’s very little to dislike in Sprint Vector. Sure there will be times when that competitive edge over takes you, getting annoyed when you fudge a jump but that’s to be expected. The single-player has enough to get you started with a few hours of gameplay, yet it’s the multiplayer that’ll have you coming back for more. Here’s hoping that Sprint Vector draws in enough of a crowd to sustain it, rather than becoming another multiplayer focused experience that gets forgotten about. Which would be a shame, because from where VRFocus is standing Sprint Vector is another hit for the studio.”
ePlay Digital Release Big Shot AR Into Beta
ePlay Digital announced back in early May their new AR sports app that would allow players a similar experience to that of Pokémon Go. The company have now announced that the beta for Big Shot Basketball would take place during the Las Vegas, 2018 NBA Summer League. This meant that those who attended the event, along with a few other select locations across North American, were able to try the mobile videogame out ahead of the 2018/2019 NBA season.
“This is going to be a big summer for ePlay and for augmented reality,” says Trevor Doerksen, CEO of ePlay Digital. “We are advancing the state-of-art for sports and mobile technology and look forward to seeing hundreds of thousands of fans of all ages enjoying the magic that our augmented reality platform creates.”
The company have been working with 7-time NBA champion, Robert Horry and a group of talented young basketball players in the run up to the launch of Big Shot AR by having them wear the titles logo throughout the summer. Though the beta launch has already happened earlier this week, there is still much work to be done to bring the title up to a full launch later this year.
Big Shot is of course a series of sports and entertainment titles that will feature AR, fantasy sports, eSports streaming, selfies, 3D, and other advanced mobile videogame features. ePlay Digital have compared the app to being the “Pokémon Go for sports”. The first of these titles is the aforementioned Big Shot Basketball app with future titles planned to be based on NFL, NHL, soccer, and MLB.