Mickey Mouse is poised to venture into the metaverse .
Walt Disney CEO Bob Chapek said the entertainment conglomerate is preparing to make the technological leap into a virtual reality world first imagined by science fiction writers.
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It is a popular destination these days, ever since Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the future of his company would be devoted to creating a robust, three-dimensional environment where users’ digital avatars would work, hang out and pursue their hobbies.
Other big companies, including game-makers Roblox Corp and Epic Games , and software giant Microsoft Corp , are working on their own metaverses. Disney’s plan was notably devoid of specifics, beyond dropping a buzzword that has animated Silicon Valley.
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Chapek told investors Wednesday that entering this new digital frontier is consistent with Disney’s long history of technological innovation, dating back nearly a century to Steamboat Willie, the first cartoon to feature synchronised sound.
“Our efforts to date are merely a prologue to a time when we'll be able to connect the physical and digital worlds even more closely, allowing for storytelling, without boundaries in our own Disney Metaverse,” Chapek said during Disney’s fourth-quarter earnings call.
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In an interview with CNBC , Chapek said he envisions it as an extension of streaming video service Disney+ -- through the “three-dimensional canvass” he envisions for new types of storytelling.
Disney’s former executive vice president of digital, Tilak Mandadi, wrote on LinkedIn in 2020 about creating a theme park metaverse, where “physical and digital world converge” through wearable devices, smartphones and digital access points.
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Not all of Disney’s digital forays have had happy endings. Its online children’s social network, Club Penguin, shuttered in 2017, after 11 years. Its entry into social gaming, via its $563.2 million purchase of Playdom in 2010, resulted in a write-down. Its efforts to capitalise on the galloping popularity of short-form YouTube videos through a $500 million acquisition of Maker Studios in 2014, resulted in the operation being absorbed into other parts of the company.
Published - November 11, 2021 11:24 am IST