NBA All-Star Game on Apple Vision Pro recalls NextVR

A new Apple Immersive video for Vision Pro recaps four minutes from the 2024 NBA All-Star Weekend.

Apple’s video of the February event joins previous releases including the Super Bowl and the format’s first scripted project, Submerged, as Apple continues to build a library of content “only on Apple Vision Pro.”

The video is notable because it is reminiscent of the work of NextVR, which Apple acquired after using industry-leading 180-degree 3D streaming technology to broadcast a significant number of NBA games live to a range of VR Streaming headsets. The long-defunct NextVR app, for example, is still listed on Meta’s store, where the page serves as a reminder to Quest owners that Apple has previously reserved its high-quality immersive content exclusively for its own $3,500 headset.

The footage in the new NBA All-Star video brings Vision Pro owners up close to the action, including on-court looks, behind-the-board looks at dunks, and a particularly memorable on-court shot as a ball directly at the camera flies to. But as Bloomberg correspondent Mark Gurman notes, “The only thing that matters is life. Right now it’s just a gimmick.”

Apple may reportedly be targeting $2,000 for its next Apple Vision headset, but even now Apple is ignoring a market with potentially millions of Quest owners and even PSVR 2 and PC headset owners who are generations over the Samsung Gear VR and Oculus Go headsets have been improved beyond what NextVR has invested so much time and money into live streaming NBA games.

“The all-in-one did what we expected,” CEO David Cole told UploadVR back in 2019. “The audience size is growing very helpfully at the moment due to a number of things.”

NextVR even began developing technology to close occlusion gaps in its footage, giving viewers full 6DoF freedom. While Apple software can post-process depth on flat still images, the comfort and freedom of moving around captured scenes is still lacking, even in properly captured stereoscopic spatial videos shot with an Apple Vision Pro or iPhone.

Meanwhile, a startup called Gracia is leveraging expensive 3D scanning rigs in studio environments and incredibly high download requirements to bring full 6DoF freedom to PC-based headsets today. Bridging the gap between such recordings and streamed recreations of a live sporting event remains an unsolved technical problem.

Meanwhile, Apple appears intent on rekindling NextVR’s legacy for its headsets with a new generation of ultra-high-end cameras in locations that will give fans a better seat than anyone else in the stands. Will a $2,000 Apple headset reach a large enough market for the tech giant to invest in camera placement and rights to stream a full slate of live NBA games, like NextVR did? What’s worth noting is that the Apple TV app is available on Android and this time next year there will be a lot of people with Meta Quest 3 and 3S headsets who would love to find a seat courtside or behind the backboard NBA Play alongside Apple owners.