The Overwatch League players and fans are going from the two-dimensional to the three-dimensional.
On Wednesday, Sansar, a free social virtual reality platform, announced it had been collaborating with the league to enable gamers to more intimately interact with fans in virtual spaces.
Sansar says it has been working with multiple professional teams from the Overwatch League, including the Houston Outlaws and the San Francisco Shock.
The platform will give gamers a “deeper way to connect and communicate” with fans, according to Sansar. Fans currently watch their favorite players on Twitch, a two-dimensional experience that looks pretty much the same for everyone. In Twitch, users can livestream a player’s point-of-view to follow their gameplay and engage in conversation via chats. Sansar takes this a step further by using three-dimensional technologies to transport fans into the same virtual rooms as players, and can be used for customized streaming spaces for events or intimate meet and greets.
Features to be added to the live events space soon include real-time stats integration and in-match player audio sharing. Fans will also be able to access exclusive giveaways and scoop up customized merchandise.
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“We’ve seen a real need in the esports market for a deeper, more engaging fan experience—something that can go beyond normal spectatorship to really draw people in,” said Ebbe Altberg, the chief executive officer of Linden Lab, the parent company of Sansar, in a statement. “Gamers today need more than just 2D chat to connect and communicate, and we’re thrilled that Sansar can serve as their go-to esports destination—a place where players can interact more closely and directly with fans from around the world. We see these spaces and partnerships as the first ripples in a bigger wave.”
The Outlaws have received requests from fans for watch parties from China, Australia, the U.K., and a number of other locations outside the team’s home of Houston, according to Simon Bennett, the vice president of marketing at Infinite Esports & Entertainment, which owns the Outlaws. With Sansar, the team can provide a virtual club house that fans can access from anywhere in the world, he said.
With the SF Shock, Sansar is building the first-ever VR Arena for esports, called the SF Shock Epicenter, that will complement the team’s new brick-and-mortar esports community center. The arena will be available exclusively in Sansar and debut on May 25.
SportTechie Takeaway
For the most part, virtual reality has been left off the table when discussing esports. There weren’t believed to be too many complementary services that could coexist—or at least no one had figured out to bring them together up until this point. With Overwatch’s partnership with Sansar, esports are now flirting for the first time with the three dimensional, taking fans into an even more intimate and interactive experience.