Disney Plans To Expand The ‘Happiest Place On Earth’ To The Metaverse
Image via The Walt Disney Company
The metaverse is upon us, and there’s no escaping it. Once branding its theme parks as the “happiest place on Earth,” Disney is now seeking to take this title beyond the boundaries of our physical world.
Yes, we’re going to have a Disney metaverse before we can even say “Mickey.”
During Wednesday’s fourth-quarter earnings call, Walt Disney Company’s CEO Bob Chapek reportedly told investors that the creation of the metaverse—a digital landscape with animated avatars representing the user, who is traversing through VR—is already in progress.
Reuters cites him as saying that entering this new frontier on the digital scene would be consistent with the way Disney has had a consistent history of technological innovation. This isn’t limited to recent times; it dates back almost a century, where Steamboat Willie was the first-ever cartoon to incorporate synchronized 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 reportedly states.
In a following interview with CNBC, cited by The Guardian, Chapek further explained that the company intended to develop this metaverse as an “extension” of the existing Disney+ streaming service. The technology is viewed as a “three-dimensional canvas” for innovative storytelling, according to him.
No further details of the metaverse-in-making have been revealed, but it’s safe to presume that Disney will be including its various franchises and brands, such as Pixar titles and Star Wars in this new world.
Although the metaverse has become the latest buzzword in all things tech thanks to Facebook’s recent rebranding, Disney might have already been planning something like this in the shadows. It’s worth noting that Disney’s former executive vice president of digital, Tilak Mandadi, had previously made a LinkedIn post last year in about creating a metaverse in the form of a theme park.
This venue would see the “physical and digital world converge,” an experience delivered through wearables and smartphones rather than a printed ticket or annual pass.
[via Reuters, cover image via The Walt Disney Company]
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