In my blog last week about the Liebster Award I answered some personal questions about myself, and mentioned that my favorite ever holidays were spent in Orlando. For years now, we have loved holidaying in the US: it all started in Florida, but since then we have visited many states, trying to see as much of the country as we can. Still, Orlando will always have a special place in my heart. It has been such a part of my daughter growing up, we love the amusement parks and we truly feel that Disney World is the happiest place on earth for us.
I was reminded of this when I saw the news that Universal Studios has partnered with Nintendo to incorporate Nintendo’s game characters and game settings into rides for the Universal theme parks. Although no specific rides have been announced yet, Nintendo said that Universal would create a spectacular experience based on some of the company’s most popular games. Of course, Mario and Zelda immediately come to mind, along with the Mushroom Kingdom and Hyrule, but we will have to wait and see. Universal Studios has acquired extra audiences when they incorporated the Wizarding World of Harry Potter into their Orlando theme parks, and I think the same will happen now but I doubt that we will see Nintendo in a separate area like the Wizarding World. Nevertheless, it is a wise move for both companies. Universal has to keep coming up with ways to compete with other amusement parks, and Nintendo is the game developer who has the most recognizable characters both for kids and for adults. For Nintendo it’s a good way to get more recognition for their characters and their games, along with (of course) more revenues.
I must admit that Universal never held the kind of pull for us as the Disney parks have. We visited Universal studios in 1998, but it wasn’t until my daughter got older that we eventually went back there, with Harry Potter being our main attraction. For some reason I feel that Universal doesn’t do as good a job at creating the magical atmosphere that we look for in our theme parks. The last two times that we went to Orlando, we visited our theme parks three to one: one day in Universal, and three days in the various Disney parks. Having Nintendo in the Universal Theme park might just change that ratio for me!
Universal is, little by little, taking away some of the days people spend at Disney. With Nintendo, they will take one step further down that path. Meanwhile, Disney’s answer is spending millions of dollars on an Avatar expansion to Animal Kingdom and sitting on the Star Wars brand…. =/
Interesting news, I wonder if part of that deal would include Universal taking a stab at Nintendo-based movies as well…
I hadn’t even thought about that, that would open even more great possibilities!
i heard about this in passing, and i’m hoping they decide to also use less common properties. just imagine an animal crossing area! you could eat persimmons and finally make the animals go do errands for YOU. sweet satisfaction.
Oh now that is a powerful mental image! I’m afraid it won’t come true, but how I wish for an attraction like this instead of the Mushroom Kingdom! Or better still: both!
isn’t it? beautiful fruit trees to shake, flowers to plant, silly errands to run, and don’t forget the shrunk funk shuffle! i do that with every townsanimal i meet!