First half online and second half on the court: Is this the future of gaming and sports?

Phygital International chief executive Nis Hatt says the Games of The Future, hosted by Dubai next summer, are a good way to get a generation to care about sports

A game of phygital at the Games of the Future 2024 in Russia. Photo: Games of the Future

Imagine this, you’re playing EA Sports FC 25 with a friend on a gaming console, and it’s getting competitive, as usual. The first half ends with the score at 2-2. Instead of resuming the second half on the console, the game is transferred to a football pitch, where you play a game of four-on-four with your friends.

This is the phygital vision, a way to mix the physical and the digital into one fun activity. The leading global phygital tournament, Games of the Future, is coming to Dubai next year.

Phygital International organises the Games of the Future, and its chief executive Nis Hatt, says the games are a good way to promote a healthier lifestyle.

“This is a great opportunity to incentivise our young audience, girls and boys, wherever they are in the world. Because we know that there are hundreds of millions, if not billions, of young people gaming every day in every country around the world,” Hatt tells The National. “No matter where it is, you will have a minister of health, minister of sport or minister of tourism that will sit and focus on this and this for us is really, really crucial.”

Crowds enjoy a competitive game of Counter-Strike 2 which was followed by a round of laser tag by the same competitors. Photo: Games of the Future

Gaming and esports remain incredibly popular, with many younger players preferring to game than play actual sports, but Hatt says there is a way to make them do both.

“When you look at the world population today, you will see that unfortunately, there is an increase in the obesity rate around the world. You have heart diseases, lung diseases, you get diabetes,” he says.

The Games of the Future is an annual tournament with 12 different events. The most recent games were held in Kazan, south-west Russia in March this year. Some of the games that were contested include virtual cycling, phygital hockey, football and martial arts.

Hatt says that they aim to have events or games that are purely phygital, but some events at the Games of the Future remain either purely digital or physical. But he’s also excited for new additions like drone racing to the roster, saying “you have the drone pilot who needs to navigate and manoeuvre around all these different points and then whoever comes first, obviously then becomes the winner, it really looks amazing because they have all these different colours in the sky”.

While the Games of the Future might sound like a modernised version of the Olympics, Hatt says that’s not what they’re trying to become. “Obviously, if the Olympics one day were to approach us and say, 'hey, we would like you to be part of it,' then who knows? We are always open for conversations,” he says.

“But at this point in time, we have our own concept, we have our own business plan, and we strongly believe that we have a very strong and very competitive product.”

Nis Hatt, chief executive of Phygital International on stage at the World Phygital Summit 2024 in Istanbul, Turkey. Getty Images

As things stand, the next two Games of the Future hosts have been chosen, with Dubai hosting next year and Kazakhstan hosting in 2026. Hatt says countries are lining up to become hosts in the future, but he doesn’t discount years where they return to a previous host nation.

As well as taking on hosting duties next year, Dubai is also the headquarters of Phygital International, allowing the city to further integrate the phygital model into more events even outside of the Games of the Future.

Unlike the Olympics, where participants must carry the passport of the nation they represent, at the Games of the Future, participants can represent any of the 88 members of the Phygital community, which does not restrict participation based on nationalities or where an athlete resides.

“We don't focus on nationalities or genders or religious beliefs, everybody is welcome no matter what. open for all is open for all, for sure, men, women, boys, girls,” Hatt says.

Looking forward, Hatt says that they want to set up a Phygital University which also operates as a games factory where new games are conceptualised, tested for viability and eventually added to the Games of the Future schedule.