Is this how we'll watch the next World Cup?
The World Cup is the most watched football tournament on Earth, but former Liverpool and EA Sports chief executive Peter Moore believes the metaverse will revolutionise how fans engage with the tournament - and the wider world of sport.
Thursday 8 December 2022 09:44, UK
How have you been watching the World Cup?
In the living room? At your local? Given the kick-off times in Qatar, you may have had some on in the office.
And with the sheer number of matches on each day, it's likely you caught a fair few of them on your phone; watching live or catching highlights while on the move; Twitter or WhatsApp always just a swipe away, so you can scream into the void about where you think Gareth Southgate's going wrong.
Not so many tournaments ago, the idea of being able to watch matches in the palm of your hand, wherever you are, was an unthinkable dream. But the World Cup, with its quadrennial nature and universal appeal, has always been a tremendous barometer for changes both in technology and consumption habits.
From the first World Cup in colour in 1970, when Pele-led Brazil wowed the world in Mexico; to Germany in 2006 bringing us into the pin-sharp HD generation; and now today's reality that in China, the tournament broadcast rights were won by the country's version of TikTok; we've certainly come a long way.
"I'm old enough to remember watching football in black and white," says Peter Moore, speaking from a sun-soaked California impossible to imagine in anything other than colour.
It's from here that the former EA Sports and Liverpool FC chief executive works on what he believes will be the next page in the history of World Cup broadcasting.
"The second goal for Japan," he says of Germany's shock defeat in their Group E opener.
"Goalkeeper Manuel Neuer, one of the very best of the last decade, was at fault. I would love to be able to drop the camera into the penalty area as he was shooting to see exactly the view he had, to see what went wrong."
Germany's number one will be relieved to hear that the solution is not to attach a GoPro to his chest. Nor would Japanese match-winner Takuma Asano be expected to take to the field wearing smart glasses like some sort of dystopian Edgar Davids.
The solution instead taps into Mr Moore's past at EA, the gaming giant behind blockbuster sports titles including Madden NFL, Tiger Woods PGA Tour, and - most famously of all - FIFA.
The impossible camera angle
"The impossible camera angles you can see in a video game, you haven't been able to in real life," says Mr Moore.
"And there's an entire generation brought up used to having the controller in their hands, seeing these angles."
Indeed, for more than 20 years, sports video games have allowed players to pause the action and fly a virtual camera across the pitch