Disney Closes Metaverse Division, 50 Laid Off in Company-Wide Staff Reduction
Disney has pulled the plug on its metaverse division, eliminating the entire team of 50 people tasked with exploring ways to tell interactive stories in new technological formats.
According to a Monday report by the Wall Street Journal, the layoff is part of a broader restructuring plan that will see Disney dismiss 7,000 staff over the next two months in a bid to reduce operating costs by $5.5 billion.
The metaverse division was tasked with finding ways to tell interactive stories in new technological formats using Disney’s extensive library of intellectual property. It was headed by Mike White, a former Disney consumer products executive, who reportedly remains at the company.
Disney first entered into the metaverse in early 2022, approximately four months after Facebook’s bold move to change its corporate name to Meta to reflect the company’s new focus on AR and VR technologies.
At the time, Disney’s former chief executive, Bob Chapek, described the metaverse as “the next great storytelling frontier.” In an internal memo, he told employees that the goal was to “create an entirely new paradigm for how audiences experience and engage with our stories.”
It is worth noting that it is still largely unclear what experiences the team was working on despite the fact that more than a year has passed since the division was created. The WSJ report claimed they could have involved “fantasy sports, theme-park attractions, and other consumer experiences.”
In September last year, reports claimed that Disney was looking to hire a transaction lawyer to explore emerging technology opportunities, including NFTs, blockchain, metaverse, and DeFi.
Aside from Disney, several other tech giants that doubled down on the metaverse last year amid the
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