Virtual On Night @ Nico Nico Video

Virtual On Night is on at Nico Nico Video! Those with accounts can sign on to see live matches of players from throughout Japan facing off against some big stars and idols.

It looks a little something like this:

At the time of this writing, 44 minutes into the start of the two hour broadcast, there are about 13,000 people watching the broadcast.

Microsoft has a full studio set up with two 360 stations, one set to face off against novice players and one against pros. Players who wanted to participate had to register in advance by sending a friend request to one of two Xbox Live IDs depending on level.

Joining the guests that were detailed here are two Sega employees, including Virtual On series producer Juro Watari. For the record, Watari lost to a particularly tough opponent (he was playing against the more advanced crowd).

As you can see above, outside of the online play, the broadcast features occasional surveys. The above survey asked viewers if they own VOOT. 41% responded yes. 7.6% said they didn't know what the game is (this isn't too surprising, as there's a link to the live broadcast on the Nico Nico front page).

While the online matches are pretty fun to watch (especially with Maria Eto making slightly erotic anime sounds), the real reason I'm viewing is to catch the details Sega promised for the Xbox 360 Twin Sticks peripheral. Stay tuned for that!