Measuring the potential of Meta’s Metaverse vision has proven difficult to effectively measure because so much of its VR content remains restricted, and limited in what it can do, at least for now. Needless to say, Meta, today, announced a new partnership with both the NBA & WNBA that will see more than 50 games broadcast in its VR environment, including five in ‘immersive, 180-degree VR’.

As Meta puts it:

“Five games will feature celebrity broadcasters and be shown in 180-degree immersive VR, and WNBA games, NBA G League games, and NBA 2K League games will be available to watch as well. In Meta Horizon Worlds, you’ll also be able to access game highlights, recaps, and archival content.”

Play Ball!

NBA fans would no doubt find this exciting. To be fair, most of these games won’t exactly be in full, immersive VR, which is the real lure here, providing an experience that stimulates being at the actual game, which isn’t possible for those outside the US. What would be even better is if all these games were broadcast in 180-degree, or even 360-degree VR, so you could take in the full stadium experience.

But they’re not – and even more than that, there’s actually a range of restrictions on this content:

  • XTADIUM, where these games will be broadcast in VR, is only available in the US.

  • Meta Horizon Worlds is currently only available in the US, Canada, the UK, Iceland, Ireland, France, and Spain.

  • To top it off, geo-restrictions mean that a lot of this content won’t be available in some regions.

Basically, the only way to get the best version of this experience is to, well, be in the US, where you can already attend these matches in reality. The restrictions underline the ongoing frustration with Meta’s Metaverse push in that it’s a) not very good, b) not fully VR-compatible, and c) currently has very limited access. There are also technical limitations at play, including licensing. The difficult spot for Meta is that it’s being forced to promote a sub-par VR experience to showcase its work, while also working to get users excited about what’s coming, despite the current crappy experience.

Ideally, Meta should’ve kept things under wraps until it was at an optimal level to provide a full VR experience, which could have been mind-blowing. However, when you’re investing tens of billions of dollars into a project, shareholders are going to want to see where the money’s going.

The major risk for Meta here is that the declining interest in VR could re-rail its plan entirely. If Meta can’t generate interest and spark more hype around the tech, then the Metaverse will have an even harder time taking off, even if it does become available in more regions.

The Wrap

Can Meta bear the financial burden and criticism for the next 7 or 8 years? Well, at this point, it has little choice but to do so, since it has gone all-in for the Metaverse. Soon enough, perhaps Meta will come up with a breakthrough in VR development and give people something to really be mesmerized by. Until then, we’ll have to settle with Meta’s half-baked VR offerings.

Sources

http://bit.ly/3XBoDVj