Of course, you could always just watch these UFC fights on an ordinary TV or your mobile device, and it would arguably be a more comfortable experience compared to having a VR headset strapped to your face. The big selling point here is that friends can get together, in a manner of speaking, and watch the fight as if they were sitting near each other despite the distance between them. Meta says it will be possible for Quest owners to talk with each other in real-time within the Xtadium. This is a broader launch of what was essentially a test involving similar viewing sessions that kicked off in 2022.
“It’s one thing to watch a fight on a flat screen, but being virtually cage-side, feeling the proximity of the fighters and the raw energy of the match up is an entirely different experience,” YBVR co-founder Sebastian Amengual explained as part of Meta’s announcement. Just how close do VR viewers get to the action? Meta says you’ll see more or less what the camera operators see during the fight, which makes sense given how the experience is captured for streaming. If this sounds exciting to you, there’s more good news: Meta indicates that its work with YBVR could result in other similar immersive VR sports experiences in Horizon Worlds in the future, though no specific plans were revealed.
