Nintendo Coming to Universal Parks

[Alicia]

Pokemon sounds much like rooster fighting:

The franchise was created by Satoshi Tajiri in 1995,[6]and is centered on fictional creatures called "Pokémon", which humans, known as Pokémon Trainers, catch and train to battle each other for sport.

That's why I like the idea of Pokemon Snap as the interactivity. No need to capture or make them battle that way. And we still get to explore and find lots of Pokemon.

Team Rocket steals Pikachu....Ride with Ash, Misty and Brock to save (it)...See Pokemon...Run into dangerous Pokemon...Defeat Team Rocket....Professor Oak tells us "the future is what you make it"....Power of Love plays.....Gift shop


A Pokemon ride basically writes iteself

Great Scott!

 

[Mr. EPCOT]

Yeah, nobody's gonna want to shoot the adorable Pokemon.

Speak for yourself.

 

[Frank Drackman]

None of Universal's latest additions have been on par lately. There regressing, not progressing, something they used to do in each new addition.

What was the objective for the additions we have seen? If you have not asked that, then how can you say it is not progress?

I’ll take a stab...

Skull Island....bringing back Kong, letting Orlando see the 360 technology, and having a new high capacity attraction added to IoA (that even works in the rain).

Fallon...represent something from NBC, one of your top TV talents wanted a theme park ride, shut down an extremely expensive to run attraction that seldom shows to capacity crowds.

I am just spit balling stuff here, but these rides are both high capacity. Many of the attractions at the parks are too old to maintain effects, ride mechinizums, there just comes a point when they need to be replaced...attractions like Twister and Disaster where expensive per show due to effects....I just think the park is making some good descisions while they were working on securing an IP (like Nintendo...I mean many rumors on here have made it sound like they were trying to get LotR, they made a deal with Nintendo, they purchased Dream Works...now they need to work on those, plus in house franchises, but, in the mean time, they are still adding to capacity and they seem to be pleasing guest (save the days they seem to have issues across many attractions...I sometimes wonder what is up with their power grid)...

 

[Alicia]

All this talk about Pokemon vs MiB and I saw this on front page of Reddit:

TIL that Pokemon is the highest-grossing media franchise of all time, beating out Star Wars by over $13 billion. : todayilearned

 

[GoUCFKnights]

Unless Nintendo is a giant billion dollar company like Disney or Universal and is willing to find a partner, pay out royalties, shoulder the burden of maintaining the food places, rides, operators, employees, maintenance, and providing high-top quality rides, it's very impossible and downright laughable. It's better to team up with a company with more money and experience to

I have to assume he was referring to a third park for Universal on their new land. The "video game park" is in reference to IOA being the "literature park" and Studios being the "movie park" (even though they aren't necessarily strictly adhered to). I've kind of been following along but not commenting too much. I'm curious do we really have definitive facts pointing to Nintendo in Studios? I've seen pretty definitive evidence of several specific rides and whatnot, but not too much other then "this is where it could all go" siteplans that seem like they're made by third parties?

I have the same opinion as the OP, as much as many here probably don't want to hear it as it probably means its a little further off then we'd like (with Orlando probably getting it after Hollywood as a result). The number of rides and IPs involved sounds like they're really prepping for a 3rd gate, and Nintendo IPs could very well be a third or even half the park at opening. It just seems like a sure fire way to make sure the 3rd gate is an instant success.

 

[dustinwashere]

All this talk about Pokemon vs MiB and I saw this on front page of Reddit:

TIL that Pokemon is the highest-grossing media franchise of all time, beating out Star Wars by over $13 billion. : todayilearned

Interesting to note what other IP's from that list Universal already has in their parks.

 

[Steptwice]

Question. If those DK coaster pictures are accurate, How do you guys think the real coaster track will be supported. Seems like you cant use standard vertical columns form underneath, because the wheel part of the boom would get in the way. I am thinking maybe horizontal support that goes to the center of the track as a whole.(Sort of like a spider web design) And the part that connects to the tract is welded to the vertical inserts between the 2 main steel pipes of the track. Just spitballing. Wonder what you guys think.

 

[Legacy]

Exactly why the whole scenario makes zero sense
They should build a whole park about video games on the 500 acre land..
You can't shoehorn dozens of properties in one fraction of a park, it's not worth it

How many franchises are in Fantasyland?

Peter Pan
Pooh
Little Mermaid
Snow White
Mickey Mouse (Philharmagic)
Pinocchio (Festhause)
Dumbo
Alice in Wonderland
Cinderella
Beauty and the Beast

That's 10, and doesn't include the non-IP Small World and small homages.

To be kvetching about only "two" IPs (Mushroom Kingdom/Mario and Pokémon) coming in to the Studio when we know there are many others Nintendo can leverage is kinda silly. Disney puts more IPs in a single land than Universal has in the entirety of the Studios.

 

[Paulio]

How many franchises are in Fantasyland?

Peter Pan
Pooh
Little Mermaid
Snow White
Mickey Mouse (Philharmagic)
Pinocchio (Festhause)
Dumbo
Alice in Wonderland
Cinderella
Beauty and the Beast

That's 10, and doesn't include the non-IP Small World and small homages.

To be kvetching about only "two" IPs (Mushroom Kingdom/Mario and Pokémon) coming in to the Studio when we know there are many others Nintendo can leverage is kinda silly. Disney puts more IPs in a single land than Universal has in the entirety of the Studios.

Ehhh, I really have to disagree. Are you talking about the one in Magic Kingdom or Disneyland?

 

[Paulio]

Interesting to note what other IP's from that list Universal already has in their parks.

I'm pretty sure that's it. We got Nintendo for our theme parks. Islands of Adventures are exclusively third-party IPs except Jurassic Park, Skull Island, and the Lost Continent. The Studios has MiB, Simpsons, Transformers, Harry Potter, and Barney as external properties.

 

[Legacy]

Ehhh, I really have to disagree. Are you talking about the one in Magic Kingdom or Disneyland?

Magic Kingdom, and I'm not sure where there's a space to disagree. There's dozens of IPs crammed into that park. It's kinda objective.

 

[zg44]

I have to assume he was referring to a third park for Universal on their new land. The "video game park" is in reference to IOA being the "literature park" and Studios being the "movie park" (even though they aren't necessarily strictly adhered to). I've kind of been following along but not commenting too much. I'm curious do we really have definitive facts pointing to Nintendo in Studios? I've seen pretty definitive evidence of several specific rides and whatnot, but not too much other then "this is where it could all go" siteplans that seem like they're made by third parties?

I have the same opinion as the OP, as much as many here probably don't want to hear it as it probably means its a little further off then we'd like (with Orlando probably getting it after Hollywood as a result). The number of rides and IPs involved sounds like they're really prepping for a 3rd gate, and Nintendo IPs could very well be a third or even half the park at opening. It just seems like a sure fire way to make sure the 3rd gate is an instant success.

It's not that simple though; Nintendo (and any other licensor with a high quality IP like Harry Potter) has a lot of say in the contract terms for a theme park license. I doubt Nintendo was willing to wait for the 3rd park given that there's no guarantee that it opens for at least a half-decade at the earliest, and there's legal issues and toxic-waste issues on the land; not to mention that Universal isn't done acquiring the land.

Usually IP licenses have very specific size requirements, spending requirements, promotional requirements, and/or timing requirements for the attractions to open. At most, I could see Nintendo agreeing to hold back a top IP or two for the next park (most signs point to Zelda), but they'd have likely wanted the rest to be on full display in flagship USF in Orlando by 2021 or so.

 

[Imperius]

And the new park doesn’t need Nintendo to be a success. Unless the park is all Shrek 4Ds it’s not failing.

And people need to understand an all video game park isn’t happening. Neither is an all Nintendo park.

 

[quinnmac000]

Interesting to note what other IP's from that list Universal already has in their parks.

19 of those IPs are/have/will be represented in Universal Parks. (*20 if you include HHN)
(Pokemon, Potter, Simpsons, Jurassic Park, Terminator, Neon Genesis Evangelion, SAW*, Transformers, Dora, Spongebob, Marvel, Mario, Dragon Ball, Shrek, Beyblade, Astro Boy, Sailor Moon, Yokai Watch, One Piece, Resident Evil, Doraemon, Ghostbusters)

 

[Ryan]

Pokémon will definitely be a mini-land, and for the record I do not see MIB closing this decade.

This decade...

 

[JungleSkip]

Pokémon will definitely be a mini-land, and for the record I do not see MIB closing this decade.

This decade...

To be fair, if it closes in 2020 after MoM opens, that’s next decade :look:

 

[GoUCFKnights]

It's not that simple though; Nintendo (and any other licensor with a high quality IP like Harry Potter) has a lot of say in the contract terms for a theme park license. I doubt Nintendo was willing to wait for the 3rd park given that there's no guarantee that it opens for at least a half-decade at the earliest, and there's legal issues and toxic-waste issues on the land; not to mention that Universal isn't done acquiring the land.

Usually IP licenses have very specific size requirements, spending requirements, promotional requirements, and/or timing requirements for the attractions to open. At most, I could see Nintendo agreeing to hold back a top IP or two for the next park (most signs point to Zelda), but they'd have likely wanted the rest to be on full display in flagship USF in Orlando by 2021 or so.

Why would Nintendo not want to be the flagship of a new park though? The comments from the press conference made me feel like they did... Nintendo was announced after the initial land acquisitions and the park is likely to go on the land initially acquired... Universal seems to be hard at work for plans on it already, water district permits, permits to add parking over there, etc... And the 2021/2022 timeframe is what the rumors are for when the third park will open. The legal issues could be settled this year and are not going to go beyond mid-next year. IOA took 2 years to build after construction started. Universal has 2 more years of planning and then 2 years of construction and would still meet your 2021 date, and it could easily be 2022.

So far we've missed every KidZone closing that people anticipated...

 

[Imperius]

The new park isn't going to be done by 2021. And people have said Kid Zone was closing after HHN from all I remember.

 

[Ryan]

To be fair, if it closes in 2020 after MoM opens, that’s next decade :look:

I know

 

[zg44]

Why would Nintendo not want to be the flagship of a new park though? The comments from the press conference made me feel like they did... Nintendo was announced after the initial land acquisitions and the park is likely to go on the land initially acquired... Universal seems to be hard at work for plans on it already, water district permits, permits to add parking over there, etc... And the 2021/2022 timeframe is what the rumors are for when the third park will open. The legal issues could be settled this year and are not going to go beyond mid-next year. IOA took 2 years to build after construction started. Universal has 2 more years of planning and then 2 years of construction and would still meet your 2021 date, and it could easily be 2022.

So far we've missed every KidZone closing that people anticipated...

Well, it depends on what Nintendo wants. For what it's worth, USF will probably have attendance of around 12-13 million by the time SNW is ready to open there. The new resort's park will likely open to around 6-7 million attendance in its first year and then grow pretty rapidly, but I'd be surprised if the 3rd dry park had over 10 million attendance before 2026. These things take time, and don't forget that the first resort will have around 10,000 hotel rooms while the second resort will probably have only around a half that by 2026-2027.

As for the second resort, I think most would be surprised if it opened before 2023; Spring 2023 is around 5.5 years away, which is a fair timeline given all of the land preparation that needs to be done on the main lots (a lot of the missile testing toxicity hasn't been completely cleaned out and there's a lot of changes that probably need to be made to where the bodies of water are).

But who knows at this point, if KidZone doesn't close before 2019, then you're probably right that they'd have agreed to wait for the 3rd dry park, but again, I think it's more likely that they just agreed to hold one or two IPs for that park.