Disney continues to dream of the metaverse

Artist: Kisu, Former Space Sun Bomb

Even though the entire metaverse department was abolished in March this year, Disney’s layout of the “3D Internet” has not stopped, and has chosen a more specific cut from the grand narrative of the metaverse that gathers new technologies such as virtual reality, blockchain, AI, and cloud computing.

Recently, Disney announced that it will partner with Dapper Labs, the creator of the well-known NFT series “NBA Top Shot”, to launch Disney Pinnacle, a “digital badge” platform based on the Flow blockchain network, which will also be available on the Apple App Store by the end of this year.

Earlier this year, Disney partnered with Cryptoys to release a series of limited-edition Star Wars NFT collections, and Dapper Labs was one of the investors in the project.

In addition, Disney’s partnership with Apple’s XR headset Vision Pro is already on the agenda, with plans to offer Disney+ streaming services for the headset at launch.

For the metaverse, Disney no longer invests heavily in self-construction, but embeds its own IP and content advantages into more suitable fields, and strengthens external cooperation. This is not only because the landing of the metaverse takes time, but also because of Disney’s revenue pressure.

At the beginning of this year, Disney made a drastic restructuring, laying off 7,000 employees worldwide, reducing costs and increasing efficiency, and finally gave feedback in the financial report at the end of the year. According to the latest Disney financial report data, for the whole year of fiscal 2023, the company’s revenue will be 88.898 billion US dollars (about 643.8 billion yuan), a year-on-year increase of 7%.

01 Dream Chasing Metaverse Planting Pit

"The metaverse will be Disney’s future. This was the bold statement of former Disney CEO Bob Chapek in November 2021.

Indeed, among many companies, Disney is regarded as “the most suitable company for the development of the metaverse”, and its film and television and animation IPs are numerous, and the Marvel IP alone is quite futuristic, even if it is just moving the theme park into the virtual world, it sounds very attractive. Disney and 3D, AR/VR technology seem to be a natural fit.

That’s probably what Chapek thinks, too. As a result, from February 2022, Disney officially established the metaverse department, incorporating emerging technologies such as blockchain and virtual reality. Chapek’s blueprint is to “be able to experience Disney’s products wherever consumers are.”

With the Disney platform as the entrance, around many IPs, Disney’s metaverse dream has begun.

Initially, the company created “real-world virtual world simulators” that were used in Disney theme parks around the world, allowing classic IP to interact with guests in 3D at any time in the park.

In addition to virtual reality, Disney’s interest in NFTs is growing day by day, with classic IPs created by its subsidiary Pixar Studios appearing on NFT collectible platform VeVe. In March 2022, the platform was authorized to NFT classic characters from Toy Story, Cars, The Incredibles, and Flying House, and sell them to collectors.

The “Cars” IP becomes an NFT collection

From 2020 to 2022, all companies around the world that followed the metaverse concept during this period faced a common reality: people couldn’t go out during the pandemic, and more content consumption came online. This means that all offline businesses will take a hit.

In such a reality, it is understandable that Disney took advantage of the metaverse outlet to tell stories for capital at the end of 2021, but unfortunately the results were not ideal: the stock price continued to fall (it fell by more than 40% in 2022), the streaming business suffered losses, and the revenue of the cable TV and movie business continued to decline.

The new, far-reaching metaverse didn’t save Disney, and the media and entertainment giant was quick to make adjustments.

At the beginning of 2023, Disney proposed a strategic restructuring, cut costs by $5.5 billion, laid off 7,000 employees accounting for 3%, and the entire metaverse R&D department was simply eliminated, Bob Chapek, who had only served as CEO for two and a half years, resigned, and the previous CEO Bob Iger returned to become the “fire captain”.

02 IP Resources Tilt to NFT

Until 2023, when countries around the world are gradually liberated from the epidemic, the economy begins to recover, and people can’t wait to return to offline life, Disney’s cost reduction and efficiency increase will finally work at the end of the year.

According to the latest financial report data, Disney’s revenue for the full year of fiscal 2023 will be US$88.898 billion (about 643.8 billion yuan), a year-on-year increase of 7%, and net profit will be US$2.354 billion, a year-on-year decrease of 25%.

Revenue rose and profits fell, but Disney’s stock price rose about 10% in the nearly week following earnings reports as cost cuts exceeded expectations and streaming subscribers improved. In terms of business results, theme parks saw revenue and profits rise, while streaming losses narrowed, with Disney+ adding nearly 7 million subscribers in the fourth quarter.

“While we still have work to do, these efforts have allowed us to move beyond this period of recovery and start building our business again,” said Iger, the current CEO. ”

After the recovery of the metaverse, Disney’s pursuit of new outlets has begun again, although the metaverse division has been eliminated, judging from its actions in 2023, the company has left its footprints in the vertical application fields of the related metaverse: NFT and XR.

In November this year, Disney announced a partnership with Dapper Labs, an NFT IP development company, to launch the NFT platform “Disney Pinnacle”, where the Star Wars IP and iconic characters created by Pixar Studios will be available in the form of NFTs.

The Disney IP, which cooperated with the NFT collection platform VeVe last year, is still being derived on the platform, and NFT collections of characters such as Donald Duck and The Little Mermaid have also appeared in VeVe’s market.

At this year’s Apple Developer Conference, Iger also announced Disney’s partnership with Apple, with the Disney+ streaming service coming to all users at launch.

"We’re always looking for new ways to combine extraordinary creativity with groundbreaking technology to create truly extraordinary experiences for our fans. And we believe that Apple Vision Pro is a revolutionary platform that can make our vision a reality. ”

Disiny+将登陆Vision Pro

For the metaverse, Disney no longer seems to be obsessed with building its own world, but chooses to work with partners to implement more specific landing scenarios. The giant has also seen its own advantages: content platforms and IP.

Compared with Bob Chapek, who proposed the metaverse strategy, the current CEO Bob Iger has more practical consideration of the input-output ratio of the metaverse, spending money where it can make money, IP NFT can be sold to fans, and Disney+ can increase revenue through headsets.

After all, the metaverse is an all-encompassing technology integration, involving cloud computing, artificial intelligence, virtual reality, blockchain and other cutting-edge technologies, and XR, blockchain, and AI are still in the early stage of development.