Global collegiate esports league Amazon University Esports has launched an online virtual world to connect the esports and education sectors.
Amazon, one of the league’s founders, said in a release that the virtual world project, called UNIVERSITY World, will use the metaverse to connect students across the globe.
Amazon University Esports said UNIVERSITY World will act as a metaverse that allows users to customise their avatar, names and a series of predetermined gestures and movements.
The organiser claims the project will create a worldwide community for its players, who can interact through an integrated chat, score points to win prizes through minigames, and other yet-to-be-announced activities.
The project is already set to be updated with additional features over time, per the release, including ‘several improvements’ that will feature educational materials, news and video-workshops.
The web-based app is already available in seven countries: Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Spain, Italy, France, Germany and the UK.
Amazon University Esports is a global collegiate league founded as a partnership between Amazon, GGTech and NUEL. It runs leagues for university students in 16 countries across the Europe, LATAM and MENA regions.
Numerous esports companies and organisations have unveiled metaverse efforts in recent years, seeking to cash in on the hype around the concept. Metaverse and Web3 providers claim metaverse experiences can help engage audiences — and customers — especially in esports due to its gaming-native audience.
In 2022 alone, FaZe Clan partnered with metaverse company Sandbox, Gen.G launched a metaverse experience with its partner Crocs, MIBR launched a metaverse esports arena, and Jesse Lingard’s JLINGZ signed with metaverse platform Virtua to expand its operations into Web3.
Amazon University Esports stated in the release: “The use of metaverses will undoubtedly grow over the next few years as more industries begin to explore and invest in them, making them more accessible to more users.
“UNIVERSITY World aims to enhance the user experience for Amazon UNIVERSITY Esports students, and bridge the boundaries to explore new ways to interact and test new products in a virtual environment.”
