Meta Quest has partnered with NBA to launch a new virtual reality service that will allow viewers to experience live sports in a 180-degree field of view. The service is powered by Meta’s proprietary VR streaming platform, and will allow viewers to experience live sports in a more immersive way.

The partnership allows Meta to provide immersive live games with 180-degree video, as well as on-demand seasonal games and content through Xtadium.

Horizon Worlds as a dedicated NBA Arena

After the successful partnership form last year, Horizon Worlds opens its doors to host NBA related content again starting November 17. This platform will allow viewers to experience live sports in VR. Interactive elements such as polls and trivia will be featured, and users will be allowed to customize their viewing experience with multiple camera angles. Meta also announced that it would be selling NBA merchandise directly on the Meta Avatars Store to increase engagement and representation for user avatars. Additionally, the service will feature interactive elements such as polls and trivia, and will allow users to customize their viewing experience with multiple camera angles.

Multi-Game mode will only be available for those who have a NBA League Pass, this will allow users to view up to 8 games simultaneously.

180-degree games on Xtadium

The Xtadium app will be showcasing all 52 games of the season in 180-degree cinematography. Thanks to Xtadium’s Watch Party feature you can now gather together with friends in a private party room where you can view the ongoing game in VR as avatars.

The games will be hosted on Meta Quest 2, Meta Quest Pro, and Meta Quest 3. Thanks to Quest 3’s improved passthrough feature users will have the opportunity to experience the games both in 2D or 180- degree view via virtual screen.

What to keep in mind before streaming sports games on Meta Quest

Meta has also revealed that it has become the official VR headset for both the NBA and WNBA’s leagues, which gives the company a great leg up compared to other VR rivals. Thanks to the available in-app purchases of basketball merch both Meta and the leagues will track more revenue, which will hopefully enable them to invest in improving their VR services.

However, you can tell that there are details that pose as inconveniences for the regular users. Those who have tried viewing the beta versions of the games have reported that the constant change of view is frustrating, as the resolution quality of the camera isn’t high enough for the streaming of high paced movements in the basketball game. This compromises the experience as blurs are happening quite often.

It is important to note that the game will be showcased only in select countries like in the US, UK, Iceland, Ireland, France, and Spain. This is one of the partnerships’ greatest disadvantages, as even Canadians won’t be able to tune in the games.

Although such a partnership is great news for all basketball and VR fans, there are a few inconveniences which should be improved. Meta will undoubtedly attract new users, however it’s not important how many newcomers there are, but what percentage of them actually continue using your services.