The VR sports app Xtadium will also be live-streaming fights in 180 degrees.
Meta this week announced that it’s teaming up with the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), one of the largest professional mixed martial arts (MMA) promotions, on an original experience in Meta’s social VR metaverse, Horizon Worlds.
Here you’ll be able to watch immersive 180-degree matches in 4K resolution alongside fellow MMA enthusiasts. In between matches you can argue with other users about your favorite fighters and unlock exclusive rewards by competing in a variety of single and multiplayer mini-games.
“There is almost nothing in all of sports that matches the thrills and excitement of a great MMA event,” said Craig Borsari, chief content office and executive producer at UFC, in an official Meta blog post. “We’re always looking for ways to capture that experience and share it with our fans who can’t get to an arena. That’s how we’ve built this sport over the years—by providing fans around the world with opportunities to engage with our content, whether through in-person attendance, live broadcasts, or social media.”
“And now, Meta Horizon Worlds is taking fan engagement and community building to another level,” he added. “Meta has pioneered VR technology through Meta Quest 2 that makes you feel like you’re standing on the deck of the Octagon, alongside our cameramen. At the same time, Worlds offers an immersive social environment where fans can see and speak with each other in real-time. There’s nothing like this available for MMA fans anywhere else.”
The MMA excitement doesn’t end there, however. In addition to Horizon Worlds, UFC matches will be broadcasted live in 4K 180-degrees via Xtadium, a VR sports app featuring live, on-demand, and pay-per-view sports events. UFC FIGHT PASS subscribers can access additional UFC PPV cards and other original content via the app.
“Mixed martial arts is an intense, fast-paced sport where the action can quickly shift and the stakes can change in a matter of seconds,” said Sebastian Amengual, CTO and co-founder of YBVR. “VR enhances the viewing experience by providing an up-close, immersive view of the action. It’s one thing to watch a fight on a flat screen, but being virtually cage-side, feeling the proximity of the fighters and the raw energy of the match-up is an entirely different experience.”
“Additionally, MMA’s one-on-one nature, the use of an enclosed fighting area (like the Octagon), and the varied angles of combat all lend themselves incredibly well to VR’s strengths, making it a particularly compelling broadcast in virtual reality compared to other sports,” he added.
For more information on Meta’s partnership with UFC, as well as a detailed schedule of matchups that will stream live in Xtadium, check out the official Meta blog post. Seeing as Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is an avid MMA practitioner, odds are we can expect to see more combat sports entertainment make its way to the Meta Quest platform moving forward.
Feature Image Credit: Meta
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