HTC Corp (宏達電) yesterday said it is partnering with American Major League Baseball (MLB) and Formula One (F1) team McLaren in virtual-reality (VR) development.
Under the partnership with MLB, the two sides are to begin a series of projects in China, including Baseball Park, a roadshow that will travel to more than 10 major cities, and Perfect Pitch, a reality TV show on Tencent’s (騰訊) video network, HTC said.
The company is also looking to develop VR products, and VR and augmented-reality content for more than 500 million F1 fans around the world with McLaren, the company said, adding that the two are working on organizing the world’s first VR e-sports competition linked to a real professional sport.
Photo: Bloomberg
HTC made the announcements at its annual Vive Ecosystem Conference in Shenzhen, China, where the company launched an upgrade for its standalone VR headset, the Vive Focus, which was unveiled in Beijing in November last year.
While the Vive headset is popular in China, accounting for 56 percent of total VR device sales in that market, VR headset sales still only account for a small fraction of the company’s total revenue.
Last month, HTC posted NT$2.1 billion (US$70.13 million) in consolidated sales, the lowest level since August 2004.
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