"Manchester City Area" Released as First
Content on App
TOKYO, Aug. 16,
2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Sony Group Corporation (Sony)
today 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
|
The FavoriteSpace app
is available now in a trial version limited to free functions, as a
preview to the official version, which will include paid functions
and will launch in October. The app is now available in three
countries: Japan, the United States, and the United
Kingdom.
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- Key Experiences in FavoriteSpace App's Manchester City
Area ("Man City Virtual Etihad
Stadium")
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.
- FavoriteSpace Links
- FavoriteSpace website
https://favoritespace.com/s/fsen/
- App download page (iOS/Android)
App Store:
https://apps.apple.com/app/apple-store/id1673739171
Google Play:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.sony.snspace
About Sony Group Corporation
Sony Group Corporation is
a creative entertainment company with a solid foundation of
technology. Across its six business segments - Game & Network
Services; Music; Pictures; Entertainment, Technology &
Services; Imaging & Sensing Solutions; and Financial Services -
Sony's purpose is to fill the world with emotion through the power
of creativity and technology.
For more information, visit: https://www.sony.com/en/
*
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"FavoriteSpace" is a
registered trademark or a trademark of Sony Group Corporation or
its affiliates.
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SOURCE Sony Group Corporation