Disney layoffs affect the company's plans for the metaverse; understand

Entertainment giant Walt Disney Co. is closing its metaverse division, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal. This arm of the company focused on developing strategies for the metaverse, with virtual and augmented reality tools. According to reports, the company plans to lay off 7 employees over the next two months and save $5,5 billion in operating expenses.

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Uesley Durães

March 28, 2023 13:58

The decision will affect more than 50 team members who were dedicated to developing Disney-standard virtual worlds.

Disney's metaverse division was launched in February of last year, when the company appeared to be expanding its efforts in emerging technologies. However, the company appears to have lost enthusiasm for virtual worlds and is now scaling back its efforts to enter web3. The hiring of Mark Bozon, former executive at Apple, in June 2022, to lead Disney's creative metaverse strategy seemed to show that the company was withpromeachieved with this technology.

Disney layoffs affect the company's plans for the metaverse; understand (Photo by Victor Serbian na Unsplash)

Although Disney has been optimistic about new technologies, with executives focused on and interested in virtual worlds and technologies, the company appears to have decided that the metaverse will notis no longer a priority. In July 2022, Disney launched a startup accelerator program focused on its “next-generation storytelling efforts,” but now it appears those efforts will be directed to other areas.

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After Tencent admitted problems with the metaverse and announced the dismissal of employees dedicated to virtual reality, Bytedance, owner of TikTok, will also fire employees from the division that develops a headset for the metaverse. According to the newspaper 'South China Morning Post', some company groups could lose 30% of their employees with these layoffs. Even higher-level positions can suffer the consequences.

This post was last modified on March 29, 2023 16:13 pm

Uesley Durães