Sony builds incredible virtual worlds for its PlayStation games – and is now seriously dabbling into building metaverse worlds, too. Their latest collaborative project with Manchester City lets fans can run around the stadium, dance and celebrate together as virtual avatars!

Labeling the experience a “proof of concept”, Sony and Manchester City are working together to let players engage in activities at a virtual Etihad Stadium through personalized avatars. This collaboration will connect a global online fan community in one platform to interact with each other and the Club without any boundaries.

“At Manchester City, we have a strong pedigree of continuously embracing the latest technologies to enhance our operation – with particular focus on exploring ways to engage and entertain our global fanbase,” said Nuria Tarre, Chief Marketing & Fan Experience Officer at City Football Group.

In an official video posted by ‘Sony-Global’, you can find virtual avatars running around the stadium and field, dancing and celebrating together in the spirit of football.

“This partnership with Sony puts City at the development stage of an exciting project that will create immersive digital fan experiences that have never been seen before in football”.

From the video itself, we can deduce that the virtual stadium will also feature virtual recreations of big highlights from different angles, including ones from a player’s point of view. All of this was made possible by integrating seven sensors when recording footage and volumetric data of Manchester City players to digitally recreate them in throughout the metaverse space.

The tech giant discloses that the “app” will be released some time in 2023, but we are still unsure as to when the virtual stadium, avatar feature and highlights will be made available throughout the platform. However, from a press release, Sony has clarified that participants will soon be able to create their avatars from their smartphones, and its countries and regions where it will be available are still under consideration.

The partnership was first announced in November 2021. At the time, both Sony and Manchester City used the term “metaverse” and described the effort as a PoC, the report said.