Newsletter
Oculus Venues is preparing to stream four World Cup 2018 matches in the near future. This means anyone in the U.S. who is a World Cup fan will be able to watch some of the games in virtual reality, and although it won’t be every single match it’ll be just enough to allow for the experience of watching a popular global event in a unique way. The matches begin to stream through Oculus Venues on June 17, starting with the match between Germany and Mexico at 8AM Pacific Standard Time.
Following the Germany/Mexico match on the 17th, Portugal and Morocco will be streamed on June 20 at 5AM PST, followed by Brazil against Costa Rica on June 22 and England against Panama on June 24, both of which are starting at 5AM PST as well. Of note is that since all the matches are physically being played in Russia, where the local time will be later in the day, the matches that will be streaming through Oculus Venues will all be starting fairly early as noted by the times, so interested viewers will need to be up fairly early as well if they want to ensure they don’t miss the matches. As an example, the Germany vs Mexico game will be streaming at 8AM PST in the U.S., which will be around 11AM on the east coast, and 6PM at Luzhniki Stadium where the match will take place.
Oculus is not the only company working with a network to stream matches from the World Cup. BBC Sports VR will be streaming some of the matches for UK users, and that particular app will be available via multiple platforms, so if you live in the UK you will get a little bit more of a choice it seems in what hardware you use to stream the match. For those looking to stream here in the U.S. through Oculus Venues, you’ll need either the Oculus Go or the Samsung Gear VR headsets.