GM. Everyone say hello to Homescreen’s newest writer, Luke! 

Luke is a senior at Williams and will be helping out with writing duties for the next few months. He’s a religion and CS double major so if you have any questions about the meaning of life or the meaning of NP-completeness, he’s your guy.

EXPERIENTIAL

Disney expands the mouse-a-verse

Just days after reporting its theme park revenue had fully bounced back from the pandemic, Disney is doubling down on its IRL footprint. Yesterday, it announced a new initiative called Storyliving by Disney that will include a series of residential communities designed for people who never want to leave its Mickey's tranquil clutches.

WTF is Storyliving

Concept art shows residences clustered around a massive, 24-acre “grand oasis,” with oodles of shopping and dining nearby, a beachfront hotel, and of course, a clubhouse to host Disney shows, entertainment, and activities throughout the year.

In a blog post, Disney said the Storyliving experience is another way to push its brand beyond the limits of its theme parks to “make Disney a bigger part of [people's] lives,” a similar motivation to its recent metaverse moves. 

So the m-word is coming?

It appears so. On Tuesday, Disney signaled its metaverse ambitions by appointing a senior VP to head up the program. Its vision feels differentiated and doable:

• With enough creative IP to keep fans entertained for 100 years, Disney has the building blocks to piece together a digital experience that no other company can match.

• Plus, the company is the best in the world at leveraging its IP within new mediums like cruises, streaming, Storyliving, etc. so bringing it to an immersive digital platform feels very doable. 

People might drag themselves to the souped-up Zoom meetings that characterize Zuck’s metaverse, but it’s a much safer bet to think they’ll show up to an interactive world where you can saber battle Darth Vader or build ice castles with Elsa. 

Bottom line: Whether it's in the metaverse or a canyon in California, Disney is still lapping the field when it comes to big storytelling plays.

FITNESS

Peloton gains an extra life

Peloton has been battling on max resistance in recent months. In the midst of executive turnover, sluggish sales, and acquisition rumors, the company has been desperate for good news. Enter Lanebreak, a two-wheeled take on Dance Dance Revolution that just might get Peloton back in the saddle.

So it's a video game?

Yep. Lanebreak was announced last July, but rolled out to the broader community on Wednesday. It’s the exercise company’s first foray into gaming and draws heavily on rhythm games like Guitar Hero and Beat Saber, with some Mario Kart racing vibes thrown in for good measure. 

• Players use their bike’s resistance knob to move their character—a glowing neon wheel—between six different lanes.

• “Beats,” “streams,” and “breakers” are sections that tell players when to up their cadence and resistance, and when to just cruise to the beat. 

• You can still leave your friends in the digital dust: Lanebreak features a leaderboard for every level and difficulty setting.

Why the push into gaming? Skeptics have argued that Peloton’s instructor-centric approach isn’t scalable or all that unique, so the firm is betting that Lanebreak will help it serve up a differentiated experience that can’t be replicated at the gym.

QUICK HITS

Seed Round

Stat: Turns out that all those Super Bowl crypto ads kinda...worked. Coinbase installs jumped 309% week-over-week the day of the ad’s airing while crypto app downloads in general jumped by 279% the day the big game. Thank you for your service, Matt Damon. 

Startup: Recording an AR concert right from your phone then charging $0.10 for fans to watch? Sounds very futurey. Encore is building it. 

Rabbit hole: A vibe shift is coming. Will any of us survive it? (The Cut) 

WHAT ELSE IS GOING ON

• The Dow had its single biggest drop of the new year as Russia’s standoff with Ukraine continues.

• California lawmakers introduced legislation to limit the data that tech companies can collect from young children on their platforms.

• Federal regulators launched an investigation into Tesla’s “phantom braking” problem.

• Tesla’s rough day continued when Ford’s Mustang Mach E dethroned the Model 3 as Consumer Reports’ best-rated electric vehicle.

• Sequoia Capital is allocating up to $600 million for its new cryptocurrency fund.

TRIVIA

Welcome to "Which is bigger?" We give you two options, you tell us which one is bigger!

A. Russia v Antarctica

B. Zettabyte v Yottabyte

C. Proton v Electron

D. Global soybean production v Global corn production

FRIDAY FUNDRAISING

Anytime an investor turns you down or doesn’t see the vision, watch this video of Kanye West getting ignored by a record label after playing “All Falls Down” 

TID BITS

Mysterious: What is a thing you like that does not exist but could exist? 

Murderous: The best genre of murder mystery is the locked room murder mystery

Multiverse: No idea how Marvel has managed to keep us interested in the MCU after its core stars departed, but man, this new Dr. Strange movie looks so damn good. 

Punk6529 wrote another good one on what the freedom to transact really means. 

TRIVIA ANSWER

A. Russia

B. Yottabyte

C. Proton

D. Global corn production