
Source: Reuters/zl
Mickey Mouse is poised to venture into the metaverse. Walt Disney CEO Bob Chapek said the entertainment conglomerate is preparing to make the technological leap into a virtual reality world first imagined by science fiction writers.

It is a popular destination these days, ever since Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the future of his company would be devoted to creating a robust, three-dimensional environment where usersโ digital avatars would work, hang out and pursue their hobbies.Other big companies, including game-makers Roblox and Epic Games, and software giant Microsoft Corp, are working on their own metaverses.
Disneyโs plan was notably devoid of specifics, beyond dropping a buzzword that has animated Silicon Valley. Chapek told investors Wednesday (Nov 10) that entering this new digital frontier is consistent with Disneyโs long history of technological innovation, dating back nearly a century to Steamboat Willie, the first cartoon to feature synchronized sound.โOur 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,โ Chapek said during Disneyโs fourth-quarter earnings call.In an interview with CNBC, Chapek said he envisions it as an extension of streaming video service Disney+ - through the โthree-dimensional canvassโ he envisions for new types of storytelling.

Disneyโs former executive vice president of digital, Tilak Mandadi, wrote on LinkedIn in 2020 about creating a theme park metaverse, where โphysical and digital world convergeโ through wearable devices, smartphones and digital access points.Not all of Disneyโs digital forays have had happy endings. Its online childrenโs social network, Club Penguin, shuttered in 2017, after 11 years. Its entry into social gaming, via its US$563.2 million purchase of Playdom in 2010, resulted in a write-down.Its efforts to capitalize on the galloping popularity of short-form YouTube videos through a US$500 million acquisition of Maker Studios in 2014, resulted in the operation being absorbed into other parts of the company.
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