Disney, the entertainment giant, recently ditched the metaverse division which was said to be a part of its plan for restructuring to cut the expenses of operations by a huge margin of $5.5 billion.
The entertainment company was also planning on laying off 7,000 staff over the next couple of months. This news was reported by the Wall Street Journal in a post made on the 28th of March, where they cited people who were close to this matter. Around 50 of the members of this division would be left with a new contract of employment, except for Michael White- who was involved in the consumer products unit.
Disney Has Plans Of Laying 7000 Staff
The metaverse division was supposed to have been created in the February of 2022 in order to formulate new ways for the audiences of Disney to start engaging with the stories. The company had also patented a virtual-world simulator, which was also aimed at facilitating a headset-free augmented reality attraction at most of the theme parks of the company on 28th December 2021.
The firm had previously considered the integration of metaverse technology into betting in sports- but that idea had never really gone anywhere. This decision to cut out the expenses and staff came after a consultation with McKinsey and Company to find out multiple cost-cutting opportunities.
Both the current and former chief executives of Disney, Robert Iger, and Bob Chapek, had considered investing in the metaverse to be a bullish opportunity. Chapek has also gone on record and described the metaverse as the next frontier for great storytelling, while Iger did work as an adviser and director in Genies- which is a digital avatar platform that ran on the Dapper Labs’ Flow blockchain.
