Employees of Disney's Metaverse Division Have Been Laid Off

US multinational media conglomerate Walt Disney Co. has begun laying off staff, including the team in charge of the metaverse division. The news was announced in the Wall Street Journal, which reported that the team working on creating Disney's metaverse numbered 50 people and were in charge of creating stories and experiences for a new generation. However, the company now plans to lay off more than 7,000 employees under restructuring plans.

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The metaverse division was led by Mike White, a former consumer products executive. Their goal was to leverage Diseny's intellectual property to create a new method of interactive storytelling. Although there will be major layoffs at the company, Mike White will remain with the company.

At Disney, the possibilities of the metaverse started to be discussed last year and the company had even got as far as choosing Polygon as its blockchain. Hired in early 2022 by former CEO Bob Chapek, Mike White was tasked with "building a new model for how audiences will experience and engage with their stories."

In November 2022, Chapek left the CEO job and passed the mantle to Robert Iger, an avid metaverse advocate who had invested in and joined Genies Inc, a tech start-up that focuses on creating elaborate avatars.

According to Disney, Web 3.0 technology could be used in their theme parks as an attraction. But despite all the efforts the company went to, these plans for Disney's own metaverse were never clear.  

During the planning and building process, the company began to be pressured by investors to reduce non-essential costs. This led the company to announce 5.5 billion USD in cuts, resulting in more than 7,000 redundancies in February.

So while it's not yet clear whether we'll see any Web 3.0 integration from Disney, the fact remains that despite these wholesale layoffs, the company is run by a metaverse technology advocate and the head of the division has been retained.

Source: www.blockchaingamer.biz