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Nintendo and Universal are moving ahead with theme parks

by: Sean Colleli -
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Nintendo and Universal have been teasing a joint theme park since early this year but now we have some more concrete details, courtesy of Mark Woodbury of Universal Creative and none other than Shigeru Miyamoto. Universal is setting up Nintendo-themed attractions in their Osaka, Orlando and Hollywood locations. Each park will have unique rides, shops and restaurants that will recreate various Nintendo games down to the smallest detail. While planning and creative work is underway on these attractions, the Nintendo-Universal parks don't have a set opening date yet and apparently will open separately over "the next several years."

I'm not sure how to feel about this. If I were a little kid I'd be thrilled, but it's clear that Nintendo is hurting for profits and as they expand into other venues I can't help but feel that their IP is losing some of its unique appeal. I pretty much lost interest in Star Wars after Disney bought it and turned it into an annually churned-out product, so I hope that doesn't happen with Nintendo's iconic franchises. Only time will tell.

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Nov. 29, 2016 14:09 UTC

Universal Parks & Resorts and Nintendo Will Bring the Fun of Nintendo to Life with Expansive, Highly Themed Environments at Osaka, Orlando and Hollywood

KYOTO, Japan & ORLANDO, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Imagine the fun of stepping into a larger-than-life Nintendo adventure. Gigantic Piranha Plants spring to life. Question blocks, power-ups and more surround you. And Mario and all his friends are there to pull you into a brand-new world.


Shigeru Miyamoto, creator of Mario, stands outside Universal Orlando Resort. Nintendo-themed areas a ...

Shigeru Miyamoto, creator of Mario, stands outside Universal Orlando Resort. Nintendo-themed areas are coming to three locations around the world. © 2016 Universal Studios. All Rights Reserved.

You will enter an entire realm filled with iconic Nintendo excitement, gameplay, heroes and villains. And it is coming to three Universal theme parks around the globe.

Click Here for Official Announcement Video

The creative visionaries behind Nintendo’s legendary worlds and characters are working together with the creative teams behind Universal’s blockbuster theme park attractions. Their goal: to bring the characters, action and adventure of Nintendo video games to life within Universal theme parks. And to do so in new and innovative ways that capture what makes them so special. All of the adventure, fun and whimsy you experience through a screen will now be all around you – in breathtakingly authentic ways.

  • Nintendo-themed areas are coming to Universal Studios Japan, Universal Orlando Resort and Universal Studios Hollywood.
  • These will be expansive, immersive and interactive. They will be highly themed and authentic environments filled with multiple attractions, shops and restaurants.
  • Guests will feel as if they are playing inside their favorite games – this time in real life.
  • There will be something for everyone – regardless of their age or gaming experience level.
  • Planning and creative work on these areas is well underway; they will open separately over the next several years.

The new themed areas come as the result of a global partnership between Universal Parks & Resorts and Nintendo – two icons of the entertainment world. Universal theme parks create incredibly popular family entertainment experiences for millions of people based on compelling characters, stories and innovative technology. Nintendo creates remarkable and imaginative games filled with captivating stories and beloved characters.

Each Universal theme park will announce details of its specific Nintendo areas. The first such announcement will come soon.

About Universal Parks & Resorts

Universal Parks & Resorts, a unit of Comcast NBCUniversal, offers guests around the globe today’s most relevant and popular entertainment experiences. With three-time Academy Award winner Steven Spielberg as creative consultant, its theme parks are known for immersive experiences that feature some of the world’s most thrilling and technologically advanced film- and television-based attractions.

Comcast NBCUniversal wholly owns Universal Studios Hollywood, which includes Universal CityWalk Hollywood. It also owns Universal Orlando Resort, a destination resort with two theme parks (Universal Studios Florida and Universal’s Islands of Adventure), five resort hotels, and Universal CityWalk Orlando. In addition, Comcast NBCUniversal owns a 51 percent majority interest in Universal Studios Japan, in Osaka and has a license agreement with Universal Studios Singapore at Resorts World Sentosa, Singapore. The company has also announced plans for a theme park in Beijing.

About Nintendo

The worldwide pioneer in the creation of interactive entertainment, Nintendo Co., Ltd., of Kyoto, Japan, manufactures and markets hardware and software for its Wii U and Wiihome consoles, and Nintendo 3DS and Nintendo DS families of portable systems. Since 1983, when it launched the Nintendo Entertainment System, Nintendo has sold more than 4.4 billion video games and more than 696 million hardware units globally, including the current-generation Wii U, Nintendo 3DS and Nintendo 3DS XL, as well as the Game Boy, Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS, Nintendo DSi and Nintendo DSi XL, Super NES, Nintendo 64, Nintendo GameCube and Wii systems. It has also created industry icons that have become well-known, household names such as Mario, Donkey Kong, Metroid, Zelda and Pokémon.