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The Almighty Buck Star Wars Prequels

Is 'Disney Pinnacle' Preparing to Be the Next Big NFT Failure? (theverge.com) 37

"NFTs aren't gone yet," writes the Verge.

"Disney will launch an 'all-new socially driven collectible experience' called Disney Pinnacle later this year, turning characters from Pixar, Star Wars, and its classic animated films into tradable digital pins." While announcing Pinnacle, Disney and its partner Dapper Labs won't even say the word "NFT." Dapper Labs still calls itself "the NFT company," but between a variety of scams, an eye-blistering episode at a recent Bored Ape event, and a market that has plunged since peaking in early 2021, that's a term they apparently will steer clear of. The only thing available on the site right now is a privacy policy that makes clear this is a Dapper Labs effort that's licensing content from Disney — not an in-house effort on the level of Disney Plus.

The NFT collection is being launched through an iOS app, and a spokesperson tells CoinDesk that web and Android applications will come later.

The Disney Pinnacle website has a few seconds of background animation showing the pins — and, of course, a waitlist signup form.
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Is 'Disney Pinnacle' Preparing to Be the Next Big NFT Failure?

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  • by Baron_Yam ( 643147 ) on Saturday November 18, 2023 @03:05PM (#64015057)

    Fools and money launderers.

    I really doubt Disney's doing this to take a cut of money laundering, so it must be to part fools from their money. It's sad that it'll probably be a fairly effective attempt.

    • by HBI ( 10338492 )

      Their future selves are going to be wishing they'd not done this. Litigation will ensue, this seems to be lit bait as far as I can tell. Some court is going to redefine what they promised.

    • by Anonymous Coward

      This amounts to Disney branded virtual trading cards. Is that something you do with trading cards? Launder money with them? Or do you think people who collect trading cards are fools?

    • I see it as Disney's accountants perceiving NFTs as digital versions of kid's trading cards, like baseball cards. It'll all be entirely dependent on Disney to maintain the system, i.e. the URLs to the copyright images & permission to use them, & Disney & can rake in the profits. Quite astute, really.
      • Not like baseball cards, like pins. Collectable Disney pins and pin trading have been a thing for decades now, and there are permanent pin trading locations at Disneyland and Disney World and Euro Disney, and I think some of the Disney stores do it too on occasion.
  • by Rosco P. Coltrane ( 209368 ) on Saturday November 18, 2023 @03:26PM (#64015093)

    This particular hype is over. What next? Disney launches a cryptocurrency?

    • This was probably planned over a year ago before the total market collapse and it's only just now going into production after many delays. Most likely It's so cheap to do they're gonna throw it out there anyway. At least try to recoup the development costs. It's also possible whoever was put in charge of this is an up and commer (read:nepobaby).
      • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

        What development costs? It's some JPEGs and a website, something the unpaid intern could whip up in a day.

        • Could but didn't. Still, they probably only spent a few million on it. They'll recover their trivial costs, probably, but their reputation was worth more. Although they don't seem to care much about that in recent years.

    • Web ring.

    • You know a hype is definitely over when some large corporation jumps onto it.

      It's like jumping the shark, for trends.

    • DisneyBucks!

      Get yours now while they're still affordable! They can only go up! Hold your DBucks forever!

      Don't miss out!

    • Dapper licensed Disney figures in a desperate attempt to make NFT somewhat attractive.

  • by drinkypoo ( 153816 ) <drink@hyperlogos.org> on Saturday November 18, 2023 @03:55PM (#64015139) Homepage Journal

    They should sell real pins, which obviously they already do a lot of, and then one of these should come with it and verify its authenticity forever or until they get bored. I bet some people would pay for that.

  • by innocent_white_lamb ( 151825 ) on Saturday November 18, 2023 @04:02PM (#64015153)

    This is what happens when Star Wars and Marvel aren't the cash cows they once were.

    Cash cows? They've milked them so dry all they give now is powdered milk!

    • Could always branch out into pr0n versions of these properties. Or running drugs. Or guns.

    • They had a good thing going with both but went out of their way to break the successful franchises they bought as if the fans would go along with any trash just because it has the right name on it. That is true for a little while. Many fans will forgive a failure or even a few but eventually even the most die hard will give up.

      Star Wars, ep 4-6. Great. Ep 1-3, wtf? I tried watching the rest on a friend's account but meh and some of the side stories I couldn't watch at all. I kept falling asleep 20 min

  • Now that the crypto ship has sailed, let's brainstorm some more idiotic "products" to part fools from their money.

    Criteria:
    1. A good buzzword
    2. Nothing of any tangible value changes hands. No physical artifacts with nonzero scrap value, no property rights, no license for use of intellectual property, nada.
    3. Must scale. A service whereby you come over to someone's house and take a dump in their bathroom does not count since it does not scale beyond the number of bowel movements you can reasonably sustain in

    • Digital Disney Tours in real Time VR 3D!

      With your $3500 Apple headset ($4000 for the mandatory Disney branded set) you can join all the fun of being at any park in the world on a ride along with your Disney Digital Host! Feel the thrill of being on all the rides and see it all from the comfort of your home! No lost time traveling to one of the parks in person!

      And you even get to experience all this for the same low price as a regular park daily pass! No additional charge for this special experience! We

  • by Growlley ( 6732614 ) on Saturday November 18, 2023 @05:08PM (#64015219)
    aping around.
  • diseny has flipped evil and they used to be better.

    The parks used to cost more then others but they had stuff like free fast passes.

    The time shears used to be very low pressure now they are loaded with fees.

    The diseny channel used to be an pay add on channel now it's an forced into the basic want it or not.

  • Anything to avoid hiring a writer and creating something new.

  • Disney has ALWAYS been behind the tech curve.
    Always.

    Let's not forget, for example, the "first" DivX - the "planned obsolescence dvd that would
    1) require you to buy a special dvd player that had a modem that would dial up to authenticate new purchases AND DOWN LOAD ADS (ofc)
    2) this dvd format DID NOT include any dvd extras, and had shittier image than normal dvd
    3) cause rented divx dvds to EXPIRE after 48 hours.

    https://randocity.com/2018/04/... [randocity.com]

    IIRC Disney was terrified at the time to release its canonical ti

    • Ironically, the technology to do the same damn thing as DIVX exists today via the typical DRM used on streaming services. What really killed the idea is that Disney discovered running an all-you-can-eat content buffet is more profitable than locking your IP behind a pay-per-view scheme. Furthermore, an entire generation has been raised on the concept of media as this ephemeral thing which can just suddenly go *poof* because Netflix lost the rights, and you just watch something else instead. The threat of

    • And when they did get into DVD they did so with discs riddled with anti-piracy features that reduced player compatibility significantly. And it was all for nought as it only takes one pirate to add a workaround to the ripper software and post it, so much so that if you were affected it would be easier to pirate the film than figure out how to watch it "legally."

      I got so used to discs that were Region 0 with disc keys of 00 00 00 00 and such because they had no desire to prevent sales that it was always a sh

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