Vision Pro put me on the MLS playoff field and it was so real I could almost smell the grass and taste the champagne
Apple Vision Pro excels at something few other devices can: deep immersion and hyper-realistic experiences that make you question your reality.
I have been using Vision Pro on and off for almost a year. The first of a series of far too short demos, but since February I’ve had one to keep and use it often, sometimes for hours.
I worked in it. I watched 3D movies. I tried drawing with it. I’ve played games, taken photos, had terrifying FaceTime calls with Persona, and revisited moments in spatial videography. Last night, Vision Pro took me to a professional football field (or soccer field for my fellow American fans) in just five minutes.
This isn’t just virtual reality, it’s Apple Immersive Video. According to Apple, it’s 8K, 3D, 180-degree video, which pushes the mixed reality headset to the limits of its visual capabilities. In reality, Apple can record the video in 8K, but the maximum resolution of the headset is about 4K per eye.
Yet it is a breathtaking, unique experience. Apple’s first Immersive Video sports movie.
Over the years I’ve worn several VR headsets, including Meta Quest Pro and HTC Vive, and watched immersive video footage with specialized 360-degree cameras. It’s always good, but usually lacks the visual clarity to make the video feel real.
Apple Immersive Video promises a little more. When the company told me they were sharing a short five-minute video (2023 MLS Cup Highlights) featuring moments from the 2023 Major League Soccer Cup playoffs, I put on the headset at exactly 9:00 PM ET and launched Apple TV in the headset to be one of the first to experience it.
In 2023, Apple partnered with the soccer league to offer the MLS Pass on Apple TV, but this video is free on Apple TV and through the Vision Pro.
I’ve watched my share of sports season highlights, but this one is different. The image quality is so real you want to touch it and smell it. Your position as players enter the field feels like you’re walking among them. When confetti shoots into the air after a goal, it rains down on you.
You might think that the 180-degree nature of the film diminishes reality, but you have to do your best to see the blackness beyond the edges of the immersive film.
Everything about the video is so real and unexpected, like I’m being surprised by a woman clapping her hands right next to my right ear, or standing right behind the net as the Columbus Crew and LAFC players scored a goal.
It’s also, at its core, still a sports highlights movie, complete with MLS Season Pass broadcasters Taylor Twellman and Jake Zivin providing play-by-play. If there is one point of criticism: I didn’t always know where to look. Unlike a televised match where the camera follows the ball, I had to look around to find the action. It was much more like being at a real game and sitting in the stands or standing on the field.
The video also takes you to the locker room party where I swear I got sprayed with champagne. At least, like the players, I wore eye protection, except mine cost $3,499.
I know Apple posted this video to attract new MLS Season Pass subscribers ($14.99 per month in the US, £14.99 in the UK), but I think this is much more than a commercial for sports video services.
I saw it as an all-too-brief taste of the capabilities of Apple Immersive Video. I want to watch an entire MLS game, or watch live baseball games from the perspective of first base and behind home plate. I would love to be virtually in the audience for the next Oscars broadcast. Strap me to a skydiver, put me in the Tour de France, take me on a tour of the Colosseum in Rome.
For now, though, there are only a handful of Apple Immersive Video experiences, and none last longer than Alicia Keyes’ twenty-minute rehearsal experience. I’m not sure why there are still so few or what Apple is waiting for, but more videos like this will certainly create the intense kind of FOMO that Apple needs to inspire new Apple Vision Pro customers.
If there’s a reason to spend nearly $4,000 on a mixed reality headset, this might be it, at least for experienced junkies.