New Delhi: Joining a growing number of companies designing their own virtual reality worlds, Disney has also announced its intention to enter the metaverse – the latest buzz in Silicon Valley and the Internet.
According to media reports, Disney CEO Bob Chapek said that his decision to enter the world of the Metaverse is in line with the company’s long history of adopting new technologies.
The announcement was made during Disney’s quarterly earnings call.
“Our efforts to date are only a prelude to the time when we will be able to more closely connect the physical and digital worlds, allowing for storytelling without limitations in our own Disney metaverse, and for consumers we want to be able to share.” We look forward to creating unique opportunities for consumers to experience everything Disney has to offer on our products and platforms, wherever they are,” Chapek was quoted as saying.
Chapek told CNBC that he envisions the plan as an extension of the streaming video service Disney+ through a “three-dimensional canvas.”
Tilak Mandadi, former Executive Vice President of Digital, and Disney’s chief technology officer wrote on LinkedIn in 2020 That people can expect Disney to create a “theme park metaverse” where everyone can experience the digital world through wearables, smartphones and digital access points.
He adds: “Metaverse experiences are powered by technologies such as computer vision, natural language understanding, AR, AI and IoT – technologies that, while enabling experiences, never get in the way of the experience.”
Disneyland calls itself “the happiest place on earth”.
Disney’s previous ventures to connect the real and virtual worlds
Disney launched Disney Movies VR in 2016, which offers an immersive experience of the Disney world from Marvel, Lucasfilm and Pixar. Anyone can experience this virtual reality by donning Meta’s Oculus VR headsets.
However, many of Disney’s earlier digital ventures have failed. For example, Club Penguin, a multiplayer online game launched by Disney in 2006, was discontinued in 2017 as interest in the game continued to decline.
In 2010, Disney purchased Playdom for $563.2 million, but in September 2016 announced the closure of the remaining Playdom games, Marvel: Avengers Alliance, and its mobile sequel, leading to the closure of the social gaming venture.
Other Plan Metaverse Entry
The term metaverse was first coined in Neil Stephenson’s 1992 novel, “Snow Crash”. The concept of a virtual world is now becoming a reality with companies announcing their intention to enter the metaverse.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently announced that the company is rebranding itself to ‘Meta’ to focus its efforts on building the Metaverse and to be recognized as a Metaverse company. Gaming companies Roblox and Epic Games and software giant Microsoft are also working on their own Metaverse project. More companies are expected to enter the “next version of the Internet”.
The Metaverse is a fully immersive, 3D version of the Internet, which is expected to become a reality in the next decade. In the metaverse, digital avatars will enable people to float in space and interact with each other.
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