News Disney CEO Bob Chapek hails the metaverse as 'the next great storytelling frontier' and sets up a new team at Disney to create new experiences

91JLovesDisney

Well-Known Member

Disney reportedly abandons metaverse plans which former CEO Bob Chapek described as 'the next great storytelling frontier'​

Season 6 Reaction GIF by The Office
 

the.dreamfinder

Well-Known Member
please explain? I didn't really understand the business model, but am open ears as to what it would have done...
It would be a souped up version of Amazon Prime, free shipping from ShopDisney, Disney+ included, and special discounts/offers, and D23, special events like Destination D and D23 expo and the magazine, with potentially more things attached. Likely would have been more expensive than Prime is though.

Media exec turned VC Matthew Ball sketched out his pitch several years ago.
 

UNCgolf

Well-Known Member
It would be a souped up version of Amazon Prime, free shipping from ShopDisney, Disney+ included, and special discounts/offers, and D23, special events like Destination D and D23 expo and the magazine, with potentially more things attached. Likely would have been more expensive than Prime is though.

Media exec turned VC Matthew Ball sketched out his pitch several years ago.

Seems like that would have had a very small potential customer base.

How many people out there order from Disney enough and visit the parks enough to where a subscription service would actually come close to justifying the price? If it was only slightly more expensive than a Disney+ subscription alone I could see it, but hard to imagine it being interesting to enough people to work if it cost significantly more.

Then again, I guess it wouldn't need that many subscribers to create additional profit.
 

jpeden

Well-Known Member
In the Parks
No
Respectfully, you have no idea what you're talking about.

Then explain it, please. In all seriousness - we have an example where an entire division (except for the executive leader) just lost their jobs, income, health insurance, etc. The executive has a fallback safety net since this was a side project of theirs so they face no consequences to this division being eliminated.

Additionally, unless you can tel us for certain, I highly doubt this executive is having their pay cut with the elimination of this division. The reality is that even if the division was a flop for Disney, this is yet another prime example of how senior executive leadership are immune to the bad decisions they make while others have to live with the consequences of those bad decisions.
 

CaptainAmerica

Premium Member
Then explain it, please. In all seriousness - we have an example where an entire division (except for the executive leader) just lost their jobs, income, health insurance, etc. The executive has a fallback safety net since this was a side project of theirs so they face no consequences to this division being eliminated.

Additionally, unless you can tel us for certain, I highly doubt this executive is having their pay cut with the elimination of this division. The reality is that even if the division was a flop for Disney, this is yet another prime example of how senior executive leadership are immune to the bad decisions they make while others have to live with the consequences of those bad decisions.
Holy crap.

BOB CHAPEK is the executive responsible for this division (and it's not a "division"). Maybe you haven't noticed, but Bob Chapek lost his job, too. He was the first one to lose his job, as a matter of fact.

If your boss' boss' boss makes you do something, and then your boss' boss' boss gets canned, and then your new boss' boss' boss tells you to do something different, how is any of that your fault?

Executives are employees too, and there are going to be a lot of executives eliminated in the 7,000. This isn't a case where the bigwigs are wiping out the underlings. You save a lot more money cutting a Senior Vice President than a Senior Procurement Analyst.
 

MisterPenguin

President of Animal Kingdom
Premium Member
Shutting down the “Disney Prime” effort, which is being associated with this cut in the press, was a mistake.
I would imagine that getting "Disney As A Service" would, at the start-up, have to be run as a loss-leader. With Streaming currently running as a loss-leader, Wall Street has no stomach for Disney to create another loss-leading division... for now. Especially with Disney about to buy out Comcast from Hulu for a bunch of billions of dollars.

Once Streaming is in the black in 2024 and dividends are flowing, investment in new services can restart... I would guess.
 

Parker in NYC

Well-Known Member
Seems like that would have had a very small potential customer base.

How many people out there order from Disney enough and visit the parks enough to where a subscription service would actually come close to justifying the price? If it was only slightly more expensive than a Disney+ subscription alone I could see it, but hard to imagine it being interesting to enough people to work if it cost significantly more.

Then again, I guess it wouldn't need that many subscribers to create additional profit.
Don’t people spend upwards of $500 just to have first dibs on snagging RunDisney registrations? I’ve seen folks who go concierge on the cruise line just to get a Castaway cabana. I think people will throw money at the company and not look back (save for SWGS, yes folks, that is the mythical breaking point). But even then, DVC will show up with those discounts.
 

Elijah Abrams

Well-Known Member
In the Parks
Yes
I would imagine that getting "Disney As A Service" would, at the start-up, have to be run as a loss-leader. With Streaming currently running as a loss-leader, Wall Street has no stomach for Disney to create another loss-leading division... for now. Especially with Disney about to buy out Comcast from Hulu for a bunch of billions of dollars.

Once Streaming is in the black in 2024 and dividends are flowing, investment in new services can restart... I would guess.
Being in the black sounds worse than being in the red.
 

UNCgolf

Well-Known Member
Every DVC member and Disney cruiser, for starters.

Ignore every comment that describes this thing as "like Amazon Prime." It wouldn't have been "like Amazon Prime" in any meaningful way.

DVC members were the only people that came to mind as obvious potential purchasers (especially with all the restrictions on annual passes), but I guess cruisers make sense too if they go regularly. Still feels like it would be a niche product rather than something interesting/worthwhile for most people -- as I said, though, that doesn't mean it wouldn't be a profit center and worth doing.
 
Last edited:

Register on WDWMAGIC. This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.

Back
Top Bottom