Above: Dozens among the hundreds of user-made ROBLOX worlds using Disney IP
I'm not surprised at all by this announcement, but I'm somewhat surprised that no one at Disney explained to company leadership what a Metaverse actually is:
Disney CEO Bob Chapek is preparing the company to blend its physical and digital assets in the metaverse. “The Walt Disney Company has a long track record as an early adopter in the use of technology to enhance the entertainment experience,” Chapek said Wednesday during the company’s quarterly earnings call. “Our 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, and we look forward to creating unparalleled opportunities for consumers to experience everything Disney has to offer across our products and platforms, wherever the consumer may be.”
For one thing, saying "our own Metaverse" is functionally equivalent to saying "our own Internet". For another — and this is key — a Metaverse by definition is an immersive experience that is editable and expandable by all its users.
Which in very practical terms in this context, means: Millions and millions of users creating and engaging with content that lifts and incorporates Disney intellectual property, in all kinds of infringing and unauthorized ways.
That's plainly obvious to anyone personally involved in metaverse platforms, and even evident after just a few minutes of online searching. ROBLOX, the largest self-styled Metaverse, has hundreds if not thousands of user-created worlds that use infringing Disney IP (see above). And Disney is famously (and very litigiously) protective of its intellectual property. Again, from just a few minutes of searching, you find stories like this:
