Nintendo Coming to Universal Parks

[Cup_Of_Coffee]

I understand theme park investments may be minimal potentially in the 20s, but if Universal has ideas essentially ready to go for Pokemon I don’t see how that trigger isn’t pulled eventually. Maybe not near future but that’s something they just cannot miss out on. I’d put $ on that happening.

Zelda, I feel eventually but wouldnt put $ on it yet. If they the LOTR rights I feel they’d choose that over Zelda if needed to make a choice but idk really.

 

[Parkscope Joe]

Diagon had concepts drawn up before Hogsmeade opened and was pushed forward once that land was shown a hit. I don't see why the same won't happen here.

 

[shiekra38]

Diagon had concepts drawn up before Hogsmeade opened and was pushed forward once that land was shown a hit. I don't see why the same won't happen here.

Yeah, you can't tell me they don't have Pokemon, Zelda, Kirby and possibly Luigi's Mansion concepts floating around somewhere at UC

 

[Living Dead Dude]

Growing up with Nintendo the idea of all 3 of these lands has me so excited! As for Zelda I realize breath of the wild is the more favorable art style but I would love to see it be themed to ocarina of time. Mythos could become the great deku tree!!

As for Pokémon I’m not exactly sure what a ride or anything would be right my main concern is since ET is so close they would just revamp all of the aliens to Pokémon. As long as there are tons of animatronic Pokémon’s like there are tons of animatronics in SNW I’m sold!

I’m shocked there hasn’t been any talks of a small little animal crossing section! It’s one of the best selling Nintendo games of all time! As much as I love spongebob I think they should scrap the store and build tom nooks rookery and have Tom Nook and Isabelle meet and greet!

 

[Legacy]

I’m shocked there hasn’t been any talks of a small little animal crossing section! It’s one of the best selling Nintendo games of all time! As much as I love spongebob I think they should scrap the store and build tom nooks rookery and have Tom Nook and Isabelle meet and greet!

It’s been brought up in the thread. The issue with Animal Crossing is the inconsistency of its sales. People point at this year’s release of the game as key point when, because people we stuck at home and wanted to socialize, its success was an anomaly for the series.

This isn’t a perfect chart, but it gives a good idea of where Animal Crossing falls. The games only go as far back as Animal Crossing releases, so no other represented franchise is complete. I tried to pick “main line” titles, so franchises with a lot of spin-offs and rereleases (Mario and Zelda, especially) are missing half to 3/4 of their sales here. Animal Crossing is what it is.

The numbers were grabbed from Video Game Sales Wiki.


Animal Crossing, despite the recent success, isn’t really in the same ballpark. If people weren’t quarantined, it’s sales are likely to have been half of what they were.

 

[ThemeParks4Life]

Hot take: I'd rather not see the Wind Waker art style in a potential (eventual?) Zelda land. One of Zelda's most appealing elements is how it's Nintetndo's darkest/heaviest franchise thematically and often visually. The Toon Link aesthetic is usually secondary and hasn't been used in a mainline game since 2009, so it wouldn't be the ideal representation of the franchise at Universal outside of meet and greets. Going with BOTW for the hybrid ride and OOT for the puzzle theater would be the best bets.

 

[PerceptiveCoot]

Hot take: I'd rather not see the Wind Waker art style in a potential (eventual?) Zelda land. One of Zelda's most appealing elements is how it's Nintetndo's darkest/heaviest franchise thematically and often visually. The Toon Link aesthetic is usually secondary and hasn't been used in a mainline game since 2009, so it wouldn't be the ideal representation of the franchise at Universal outside of meet and greets. Going with BOTW for the hybrid ride and OOT for the puzzle theater would be the best bets.

Agreed. Breath of the Wild is one of the best selling games of all time. Wind Waker (relative to other Zelda games) underperformed. BotW effectively is the Zelda aesthetic now in the same way that New Super Mario Bros and 3D World are the Mario aesthetic, Mario Kart 8 is the MK aesthetic, and Donkey Kong Country Returns is the DK aesthetic.

 

[Palutena]

It’s been brought up in the thread. The issue with Animal Crossing is the inconsistency of its sales. People point at this year’s release of the game as key point when, because people we stuck at home and wanted to socialize, its success was an anomaly for the series.

This isn’t a perfect chart, but it gives a good idea of where Animal Crossing falls. The games only go as far back as Animal Crossing releases, so no other represented franchise is complete. I tried to pick “main line” titles, so franchises with a lot of spin-offs and rereleases (Mario and Zelda, especially) are missing half to 3/4 of their sales here. Animal Crossing is what it is.

The numbers were grabbed from Video Game Sales Wiki.

View attachment 13698
Animal Crossing, despite the recent success, isn’t really in the same ballpark. If people weren’t quarantined, it’s sales are likely to have been half of what they were.

You're right, your chart is far from perfect and omits or uses some data points that are far from "mainline" titles from respective series (You've also if I can tell included a spin off animal crossing game). I also would say folks far over exaggerate how much animal crossing "only" sold better cause of the context of the latest release. It was always on track to sell far better than the previous entries (which both handheld entries sold ~12m, more than practically any zelda game prior to botw) much like pretty much every nintendo franchise that has released on switch (one can consider botw a notable outlier to its series as well) , and it's legs have yet to slow down even as lockdowns and other factors have mitigated. At this point even selling half of what it will end up selling would be selling more than basically every pokemon entry released since 2000. But regardless there are very few nintendo franchises that have consistently sold over 10m let alone done it three separate times.

That said there are more than enough reasons why it's premature to consider animal crossing, particularly the fact while it has always been a pretty successful franchise, most of that popularity before now was concentrated in Japan, and yes its current level of popularity has yet to be made clear if its solidified. But I will say this, theme parks have made bets on far less popular potential "flash in the pan" series.

 

[fryoj]

It’s been brought up in the thread. The issue with Animal Crossing is the inconsistency of its sales. People point at this year’s release of the game as key point when, because people we stuck at home and wanted to socialize, its success was an anomaly for the series.

This isn’t a perfect chart, but it gives a good idea of where Animal Crossing falls. The games only go as far back as Animal Crossing releases, so no other represented franchise is complete. I tried to pick “main line” titles, so franchises with a lot of spin-offs and rereleases (Mario and Zelda, especially) are missing half to 3/4 of their sales here. Animal Crossing is what it is.

The numbers were grabbed from Video Game Sales Wiki.

View attachment 13698
Animal Crossing, despite the recent success, isn’t really in the same ballpark. If people weren’t quarantined, it’s sales are likely to have been half of what they were.

Using just that chart in a vaccum, Animal Crossing is more popular than Zelda.

 

[Bulldog45]

Am I the only one that has never heard of Animal Crossing?

 

[MurphyJoe]

The biggest problem I see with Animal Crossing and Universal is AC is more comfy than thrilling. Could Universal Creative create a full attraction without some level of thrill? Yes. Would they with their preferences though?

If something does happen with AC I'm imagining it would be a mini-land which might or might not have a ride component; however, I'd love to see a slow moving AC boat ride.

 

[JungleSkip]

The biggest problem I see with Animal Crossing and Universal is AC is more comfy than thrilling. Could Universal Creative create a full attraction without some level of thrill? Yes. Would they with their preferences though?

If something does happen with AC I'm imagining it would be a mini-land which might or might not have a ride component; however, I'd love to see a slow moving AC boat ride.

Yea, the issue with Animal Crossing is it's a game about nothing. Hard to really excite people with a land where you rearrange furniture all day.

(Not judging you if you like AC, just that it's not theme park material)

 

[Mike S]

Yea, the issue with Animal Crossing is it's a game about nothing. Hard to really excite people with a land where you rearrange furniture all day.

(Not judging you if you like AC, just that it's not theme park material)

Can’t see it outside of a single store honestly.

 

[PerceptiveCoot]

Can’t see it outside of a single store honestly.

Just let me hug Isabelle and curse out Tom Nook.

 

[Tristan]

AC would be perfect for a theme park, after all, theme parks transport you to places you never could be able to go and experience things you can't in the real world, like paying off your home loan without any time restraints!

 

[shiekra38]

Yea, the issue with Animal Crossing is it's a game about nothing. Hard to really excite people with a land where you rearrange furniture all day.

(Not judging you if you like AC, just that it's not theme park material)

Other than a home walkthrough/meet-n-greet or an extremely relaxing boat ride it really couldn't be much more than that

Buuut you could do all that with other Nintendo properties

 

[quinnmac000]

Animal crossing would make a perfect camp Jurassic/kid zone area. Think Tom Sawyer Island!!!!

You can add a boat/train/plane ride pretty easy as that’s how you arrived to your town in many of the games.

Make it a daily quest for quests who visit the land to collect all the collectibles and take to the museum. Use in land money earned by gathering goods to gain tools to collect more items for the museum. Get your name listed on the bulletin board if you accomplished goals for the day.

Add a interior decorating activity in which you have the Happy Home Academy rank you and see your animal crossing in game home come to fly.

Obviously add the two in game stores and a cafe.

Lastly the game has in game flat rides they could theme and add.

I think a lot of people are simplifying the game. The game is living freely. You can decorate or not decorate. You can go swim or not swim. There is so much potential for Universal because the game doesn’t have a story that has to be followed. It’s a real blank slate where UC can have a lot of fun!

 

[Nick]

A lot of people simply don’t know what the hell Animal Crossing is. Younger people do, but when Nintendo has so many better IPs to draw from, I’m not sure why Universal would have any incentive to create anything based on them.

 

[quinnmac000]

A lot of people simply don’t know what the hell Animal Crossing is. Younger people do, but when Nintendo has so many better IPs to draw from, I’m not sure why Universal would have any incentive to create anything based on them.

it’s a merchandise heaven over 400 villagers they can sell in the store and have Nintendo tie in amiiiboos or universal exclusive in game furniture you can’t get anywhere else...the fans will come

 

[Grabnar]

I don’t see the incentive to dedicate a whole shop to AC when there’s already a Nintendo super store getting built that can encompass all of the merch already. You don’t have to build a dedicated store to hawk plastic figures with RFID chips in them :shrug: