The recent World Drone Prix was just the beginning: Dubai has now announced that they’re planning on hosting the World Future Sports Games in December next year.

The competition, supported by the World Federation of Future Sports, will not only involve drone racing, but will include other tech-based sports that employ modern tech and artificial intelligence as well. These include autonomous car racing, robotic football, running, table tennis, swimming and wrestling (yes, all as played by robots). It will also involve manned drone racing (as in a person ON a drone – awesome), regular drone racing and cybathlon competitions (sports with the assistance of bionic assistive technology).

To get you amped, here’s a vid of some hilariously cute robot football from the Robocup 2015.

If the event goes well, Dubai is looking to host it every two years.

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The games are a pretty ambitious looking plan, but if there’s anywhere that could pull it off, it’s Dubai. The world’s first World Drone Prix went off without a hitch, and saw a 15-year-old British boy called Luke Bannister walking off with a cool pocket money prize of close to Dhs1,000,000. Jealous, us?

There’s one sport they’re missing out at the Future Sports Games though, and that’s giant manned robot battles. Think similar to Real Steel with Hugh Jackman, or Pacific Rim on a much smaller scale. Hopefully though, this could soon become a reality, with the USA having recently challenged Japan to a proper clash of steel titans, as you can see in the below video.

The plans for the World Future Sports Games, launched under the directives of H.H. Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum, Vice President of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai and H.H. Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai, have been made in the hopes of driving innovation, research and development in the UAE.

Sheikh Hamdan mentioned in a press release, “Today we start a new phase in our march to the future through the launch of these unique initiatives that are built on the success of our global platforms, the UAE Drones for Good Award and the UAE AI and Robotics Award for Good

“Over the past two years, these platforms have attracted thousands of entries and hundreds of teams from around the world to strengthen the position of the UAE in the field of innovation at the global level.”

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