Sports sector intel

Sports virtual worlds (examples of ‘Vertical Worlds‘) are a niche I believe will become increasingly popular. Why? Two main reasons – relevance and gaming. Here’s the latest intel in this sector.

This week we’ve seen another soccer-based VW announced to join Football Superstars. Interzone Futebol will be a ‘soccer-focused virtual world with matches and athletic gameplay as well as social spaces.’ Sounds pretty similar to FS in terms of basic proposition. However, Interzone Entertainment, the company behind the project are targeting the Brazilian marketplace as their primary focus…..

“Of 17 World Cup championships, 11 have been won by South American nations, with Brazil winning a record five World Cup titles,” Interzone Entertainment president Marty Brickey explained in a statement.

Do Brazilians like football? No, they love it. Do Brazilians have good broadband coverage and sufficiently high avg household incomes to afford computers fast enough to cope with this type of application? Probably not as high as Europe but it’s showing signs of increasing.

Another sport, this time motor racing, is back in the press. As briefly mention before and deemed important enough to make it into the BBC news website, iOpener Media is developing a Formula One based racing virtual world.

“It’s clear that the next trend in gaming is going to be bringing real objects into the virtual world; playing not against other gamers but people doing the real thing,” said Andy Lurling, founder of iOpener Media.

Racing against F1 drivers in real-time is an interesting concept – but it’s worth pointing out the issues with collision (real vs virtual).

Rev those engines.

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