The Virtual Reality Super Bowl Is Coming
One day, we'll watch the big game unfold in 3D on our coffee table.
If you watch Super Bowl 50 on Sunday, keep in mind that your viewing experience could be way, way better. And, if we’re to take Microsoft at its word, your football viewing will soon be otherworldly. Microsoft, evidently, has big dreams for bringing augmented and virtual reality to the world of sports entertainment: On Tuesday, it released a video that hypes up its version of how we’ll watch the Super Bowl in the future. And since Oculus has beat them to market, it’s retaliatory. It’s a courtship duel — both companies are attempting to win over the NFL’s heart.
With the aid of Microsoft’s HoloLens, watching sports at home could be far superior to watching games in person. The mixed reality experience may be good enough that you’ll just want to skip the price of admission.
If we run with what the video forecasts, you will be able to:
- Gesture-summon relevant statistical information into your living room.
- Will a life-sized Russell Wilson hologram into virtual existence, or invite your favorite NFL player to bust a hole through your wall and strike a pose.
- Watch the game unfold in 3D on your coffee table.
- Expand your view of the action from the oppressive confines of your TV to the entirety of your living room wall.
- Conjure up live fantasy statistics.
- Generally rejoice with friends and family over how incredible the future is and that you’ve living it.
Here’s the full video:
But don’t think that Oculus is sitting idly by: It’s actually ahead of Microsoft. A few weeks ago, it released — in conjunction with the NFL — a handful videos previewing its version of the virtual reality future of sports. And if we’re to take Oculus at its word, stadiums, as places in which fans come in person to watch games, may be passé before you know it.
This company thinks it can one-up Microsoft, and the implication may be that the NFL does, too. Forget merely bringing Wilson into your living room: Oculus may be able to actually put you inside the helmet of your favorite players.
