It is not clear if Disney will have other teams continue to work on its metaverse plans.
Walt Disney has taken plans for the metaverse off its list of things to do. The entertainment giant’s “next-generation storytelling and consumer experiences” division was asked to look into metaverse strategies.
But now, Disney is getting rid of the whole division as part of its plan to restructure. Over the next two months, the company will lay off nearly 7,000 people.
Disney Dismisses Metaverse
The CEO of Disney, Robert Iger, told the WSJ that the layoffs would start this week. All of the nearly 50 people who worked in the metaverse division have lost their jobs. Its leader, Mike White, was made SVP of consumer experiences and platforms in February 2022. His job was to help the entertainment company get more involved in the web3 space.
Even though White hasn’t been fired because of the downsizing, it’s still not clear how the executive will work in the future.
Reports also say that Disney was under a lot of pressure from investors to stop doing businesses that weren’t very important. So, the company hired consultants from McKinsey & Co. to help them find ways to cut costs. But some of the top executives in charge of content did not like this move.
More recently, Disney said it would cut $5.5 billion from its budget and get rid of 7,000 jobs. This was done in response to tough economic conditions, strong competition in streaming, and falling revenues from cable TV and movie box office, all of which put pressure on many big media companies.
One long-term bet is on Metaverse. It is not something that most people do. It doesn’t look like there will be any money coming in any time soon. This has upset a lot of tech companies that have put billions of dollars into the project over the past few years.
Long Game Meta
The projects at the company run by Mark Zuckerberg are wasting money and failing. The virtual and augmented reality part of Meta lost $13.7 billion in 2022.
Even though the space has a bad reputation, Meta has no plans to stop or reduce its work in the metaverse. The team thinks that the division will lose more money over the course of the whole year in 2023, so they plan to invest “meaningfully” in this area. Zuckerberg has said in the past that he is looking at the big picture when he talks to people who don’t like the metaverse.
“Look, I get that a lot of people might disagree with this investment, but from what I can tell, I think this is going to be a very important thing. People will look back a decade from now and talk about the importance of the work being done here.”
