LOS ANGELES (February 9, 2023) – Gym Class, the most popular VR basketball app with more than one million downloads, today announced a licensing relationship with the National Basketball Association (NBA). Expanding its immersive gaming experience, the enhanced Gym Class app lets fans step onto their favorite NBA team’s courts to play basketball with friends, feel what it’s like to dunk, and wear NBA-branded apparel and accessories.
Available for all 30 NBA teams this winter, the NBA Bundle starts at $19.99 and includes a virtual replica of an NBA team’s court, two different sets of team-branded apparel, and a team-branded basketball. Additional NBA and team-branded basketballs and accessories will also be available for purchase separately.
Ranked as the #1 most popular basketball game in virtual reality, with the largest VR sports active player communities, and a top rated experience in Quest ecosystem, Gym Class’s mission is to inspire millions of gamers to be athletes and to connect through social sports. Representing the future of gaming and basketball experiences, Gym Class provides a safe environment for fans to game off the couch and feel like they’re playing basketball from around the world while also getting a workout during gameplay.
“NBA fans will be able to feel what it’s like to step onto their favorite team’s court with their friends,” says Paul Katsen, co-founder and Chief Product Officer for Gym Class. “We’re excited about this relationship with the NBA and our shared vision of connecting fans through the game of basketball.”
"Our collaboration with Gym Class will provide our fans with a new way to express their NBA fandom and connect with each other," said Adrienne O’Keeffe, Head of Digital Consumer Products at the NBA. “We look forward to NBA fans fully immersing themselves through this innovative gaming experience.”
Currently, Gym Class offers various game modes and drills, including multiplayer and AI-based passing drills, 1v1, 2v2, and 3v3 competitive game modes. Players can design and customize full-body avatars, including cosmetic customization and realistic lower-body movement. The app physics and motion-based mechanics (shooting, grabbing, jumping, and sprinting) are all based on real physical movements tracked by the Meta Quest. All data is networked across players to enable live basketball gameplay even while thousands of miles apart. The app offers unique basketball performance analytics for players to see their in-game statistics, game-level shot charts, and streaks and explore others' profiles in the community. There is a free-to-play mode and “Gym Class PRO” for premium content such as customizable private courts and a personalizable full-body avatar.
About Gym Class VR
Gym Class VR, built by IRL Studios, was founded by Matthew Harris, CEO, Justin Hubert, Chief Creative Officer, and Paul Katsen, Chief Product Officer in 2021. They joined forces to build a social experience through digital sports leveraging their consumer, virtual reality, and gaming backgrounds. To date, the company has raised almost $9 million, with investments from the likes of Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), Y Combinator, 35 Ventures (Kevin Durant), Andre Iguodala, Rudy Cline-Thomas, Danny Green, and more. Gym Class VR, the most popular VR basketball app available and 100 million views on TikTok, combines the fun, fitness, social, and entertainment aspects of real-world sports delivered in best-in-class VR basketball. For more information, visit:
gymclass.com and the
Meta Quest Store.
About the National Basketball Association
The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a global sports and media organization with the mission to inspire and connect people everywhere through the power of basketball. Built around five professional sports leagues: the NBA, WNBA, NBA G League, NBA 2K League, and Basketball Africa League, the NBA has established a major international presence with games and programming available in 214 countries and territories in more than 50 languages, and merchandise for sale in more than 200 countries and territories on all seven continents. NBA rosters at the start of the 2022-23 season feature 120 international players from 40 countries. NBA Digital’s assets include NBA TV, NBA.com, the NBA App and NBA League Pass. The NBA has created one of the largest social media communities in the world, with 2.1 billion likes and followers globally across all league, team, and player platforms.
Media Contact:
Gym Class
press@gymclassvr.com
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