Epic Games is building Disney's universe.
Epic Games is building Disney's universe.
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The metaverse is back. But let’s not call it the metaverse | The DeanBeat

  • Posted byby Dean Takahashi
  • Updated
  • 6 min

When Disney shut down its metaverse division on March 28, 2023, the end of the 50-person division was interpreted as doom for the metaverse, the over-hyped universe of virtual worlds that are all interconnected, like in novels such as Snow Crash and Ready Player One. 

By May 8, Business Insider ran a story with the headline, “RIP Metaverse,” where the memorable line was “the metaverse is dead.” It turns out that this particular interpretation of a business trend gone sideways was wrong, though I wouldn’t say the metaverse is out of the woods yet.

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Written by

Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.