Through a new football virtual reality project, NFL Hall of Fame quarterback Joe Montana is helping change the way gamers play and interact with one other. Montana and industry veteran Damon Grow — as part of their virtual reality game developer Superstar Games — announced on Friday its upcoming inaugural seven-on-seven all-passing game, Montana 17.
It is also the first mobile virtual reality game licensed by the NFL Players Association, with a number of current players making appearances like Dallas Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott and Carolina Panthers quarterback Cam Newton. Additionally, Montana 17 is the first football game for both Samsung Gear and Google’s Daydream mobile VR platforms.
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“To be at the frontier of a new dawn of gaming medium was too good to pass up,” said Grow, who is the Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of Superstar Games. “What we tried to accomplish is transporting the mind to the world of football. To give you the sense of elation and presence of actually being in the game being cheered on by thousands of fans. It’s quite exhilarating. Hearing the crowd, the strategy of picking plays in real time, the crunch of getting tackled at the line of scrimmage and playing as your current football heroes.”
Grow, who dubbed Montana a “futurist” for his forward-thinking around altering the gaming landscape, added that he and Montana chose the mobile platform because it was the most “untethered experience” in order to bring Montana 17 to a wider spectrum of gamers.
“With the virtual reality experience, gamers will definitely get a better sense of what football is like to play at a different speed,” said Montana, who earlier this month also continued to grow his social, digital and technology portfolio, investing $250,000 in messaging app and chatbot platform Blend.
There are plans for additional integrations in the coming months such as head-to-head competition amongst players along with the potential for eSports-style tournaments, albeit arguably on a lesser-scale compared to what is currently taking place at stadiums across the world.