“Disney” cancels its “Metaverse” division after the restructuring plan!
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News reports have emerged that entertainment company Walt Disney has restructured to reduce operating costs by $5.5 billion, with plans to lay off 7,000 employees over the next two months.
According to The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) in an article published on March 28, Disney has eliminated its entire Metaverse division, leaving about 50 employees without new contracts, with the exception of Michael White, the head of the company’s consumer products unit. .
In mid-2022, Disney began developing its metaverse strategy, with Polygon chosen as the preferred blockchain to build on.
Also, this commitment was further reinforced in September 2022 when job offers were posted for an in-house advisor specializing in NFT and DeFi.
Despite this apparent effort, by the following year, plans for Disney’s “Metaverse” remained unclear, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Disney recently patented a virtual world simulator to facilitate headset-free augmented reality (AR) entry factors at its theme parks, which was due to be implemented by the end of 2021.
After a negative evaluation by McKinsey & Company, Disney announced its intention to reduce operating expenses and number of employees due to financial instability and increased competition in streaming services.
Former and current CEOs Bob Chapek and Robert Egger both have a positive view of Metaverse technology.
Chapek once described it as the next frontier for great storytelling, while Egger previously held a position working at Genies, a digital platform running on Dapper Labs’ Flow blockchain.
Most of the major metaverse currencies have remained largely unaffected by the recent news.
Decentraland’s MANA token price is up 1% in the past hour, while the Sandbox token price hasn’t seen any major changes.
