Entertainment company Walt Disney is reportedly restructuring to reduce its operating costs by $5.5 billion, with plans to lay off 7,000 staff over the next two months. According to The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) in a March 28 article, Disney has axed its entire metaverse division – leaving around 50 employees without new employment contracts, except for Michael White, the head of the company’s consumer products unit.
In mid-2022, Disney began developing its Metaverse strategy, with Polygon being chosen as the blockchain of choice. Also, this commitment was further solidified in September 2022 when it posted a job offering for an in-house counsel position specializing in NFTs and DeFi. Despite this apparent effort, by the following year, Disney’s Metaverse plans remained unclear, as reported by The Wall Street Journal.
Disney recently patented a “virtual-world simulator” to facilitate headset-free augmented reality (AR) attractions at its theme parks, which was set for implementation by the end of 2021. Following an assessment from McKinsey & Company that sought out cost-cutting opportunities, Disney announced its intention to reduce operational expenses and staff count due to financial instability and increasing streaming competition.
Former and current chief executives Bob Chapek and Robert Iger both have a positive outlook on the metaverse; Chapek described it as “the next great storytelling frontier,” while Iger had previously held positions in Genies, a digital avatar platform running on Dapper Labs’ Flow blockchain.
Most metaverse majors have remained largely unaffected by the recent news. Decentraland’s MANA token is up 1% in the last hour, while Sandbox’s SAND token has not seen any significant changes.
