The Metaverse and Digital Transformation at Disney
Let’s look at how Disney is entering the metaverse and is driving the future of storytelling. Disney is all about storytelling.
In the past, we’ve had this expectation that this is a passive experience where we sit in front of a movie screen or experience the stories in front of us, and I believe the metaverse will make the storytelling more immersive.
This is in line with what Disney CEO Bob Chapag said when he said that we realize that this is going to be less of a passive type experience, where you just have playback, whether it’s a sporting event or whether it’s an entertainment offering, and more of an interactive, lean forward, actively engage the type of experience.
They recently created a new role as a Metaverse executive at Disney.
His job title is Senior Vice President of Next Generation Storytelling and Consumer Experiences, and it will focus on understanding the potential of virtual reality and augmented reality, as well as other metaverse-aligned technologies.
a place to see the metaverse transformation for real is in the Disney parks. Chapel, the Disney CEO, said, we have something no one else has our parks.
If the metaverse is the blending of the physical and the digital in one environment, who can do this better than Disney?
At Disney World Resort, they partnered with Snap to create new augmented reality lenses that allow visitors to Snap selfies with their favorite Disney characters.
They have also created a virtual mural at Wald Disney World’s Magic Kingdom Park using augmented reality.
So for the 50th anniversary of Walt Disney World Resort, a business can now use Snaps AI technology to add photos to the Cinderella Castle mural of memories.
I’ve just come back from Orlando visiting Disney, and for me, we went to Epcot, where one of the rides illustrates how we can now merge the digital world with the real world Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure.
Epcot is a 4D ride experience. So you go into these automated cards, you get augmented reality glasses to wear, and then the ride shrinks you, and you join the little mouse, Chef Remy, on a daring ride that zips you and dashes you through the bustling kitchen of Gaston’s famous Paris restaurant, and you experience different things coming at you.
So again, you’re merging the real world of the ride and the promise with the digital world, which is amazing.
What is interesting, though, is that Disney has recently filed a patent for a virtual world simulator.
this is what is interesting, is that it requires no headset, no goggles, and no digital glasses, which is a very interesting thing where this might take us in the future, that we can merge the real and the virtual world without the need for glasses.
Another technology that is often associated with the metaverse is Blockchain technology and Web Three.
this is something that, again, Disney is experimenting with. They have created a series of NFT’s nonfungible tokens called Golden Moments that celebrate some of its most loved characters and moments from its movies.
What is interesting is Disney is selling lots of physical memorabilia in their parks, but this one is based on a smart contract.
It’s a digital-only piece, and this is allowing Disney to generate some ongoing revenue because the smart contract determines that when these are traded in, or each time they are resold among fans or collectors, Disney can get a six percent fee for the sale, which makes it much more interesting commercially for Disney.
Another technology that is often associated with the metaverse is Blockchain technology and Web Three.
this is something that, again, Disney is experimenting with. They have created a series of NFT’s nonfungible tokens called Golden Moments that celebrate some of its most loved characters and moments from its movies.
What is interesting is Disney is selling lots of physical memorabilia in their parks, but this one is based on a smart contract.
It’s a digital-only piece, and this is allowing Disney to generate some ongoing revenue because the smart contract determines that when these are traded in, or each time they are resold among fans or collectors, Disney can get a six percent fee for the sale, which makes it much more interesting commercially for Disney.
