Appnori Inc., a sports-focused VR game development company, has signed a character use agreement with Manny Pacquiao that enables the company to have the professional boxer headline its latest title.
The deal even calls for Pacquiao, who was on the losing end of a controversial unanimous decision Sunday that went in favor of Jeff Horn, to serve as the referee in a tournament held for the top 10-20 players in a yet-to-be-released game called The Manny Pacquiao Boxing Kings VR.
“With this game, we are creating our own ecosystem,” Sean Kwon, Head of International Business Development at Appnori, said in a recent presentation.
“When they are familiar with playing offline, they can go online to compete with others around the world. We will invite high rankers to an actual offline tournament where Manny Pacquiao will be a referee. Luckily, Manny Pacquiao already agreed to be a referee.”
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The signing of Pacquiao is part of a plan to scale up for Appnori, which in March received funding and support from Vive X, HTC Vive’s global accelerator program. Appnori also has financial support from the South Korean government, Kwon said.
Appnori is looking to raise $2 million in funding that would help the company to sign more sports stars like Pacquiao and ultimately raise its profile.
The startup has already released VR games for baseball and ping pong, with being showcased by the Lamigo Monkeys, a Chinese Professional Baseball League team in Taiwan.
Kwon said the company has five more games in the pipeline that involve other sports and hopes to have released 25 titles by 2020.
Appnori is also getting into esports, agreeing on a partnership last month with the International e-Sports Federation (IeSF) to promote VR esports. IeSF has dealt with sports federations from around the world in order to promote esports as official sports in the hopes that one day it will be an Olympic competition.
“VR contents will grow explosively in the future, and it is time to adapt quickly to expand the scope of esports. In this regard, we are pleased to work with Appnori,” Alex Lim, the Secretary General of IeSF, said in a statement. “VR and esports combined will create various synergies and will be the next combination for esports to expand. IeSF will make sure that esports is not only about creating business but also to look for creation of universal values for society, and to take care of the people involved in the industry as well.”