Another big video game company is moving to get into the themed attraction business.
Ubisoft - the maker of Assassin's Creed, Just Dance, Far Cry, and Rabbids - has announced that it has partnered with California-based Storyland Studios to design and develop multi-brand themed entertainment experiences, including a concept for a full-scale Ubisoft theme park.
"Ubisoft's stories and characters are iconic and globally recognizable," Chief Strategy Officer and Head of Global Clients at Storyland Studios Ben Thompson said. "The settings within Ubisoft's game worlds are a perfect tapestry for physical world creation--whether historic, real life, city-based, under the ocean, or on a different planet. For an experience designer like Storyland, it's an incredibly exciting sandbox to play in. We're thrilled to have been entrusted with this opportunity."
We recently wrote about Storyland Studios' work on the proposed Storyville Gardens theme park in Tennessee. In addition, the experience design and production firm has worked on projects for clients including Universal Studios, Legoland, Lucasfilm, and Wynn Las Vegas.
“"We are impressed with Storyland's expertise in themed entertainment and their three-dimensional story development approach," Location-Based Entertainment Manager at Ubisoft Mathilde Bresson said. "Video games and themed parks have a lot more in common than we think. We are excited to join forces with Storyland to continue exploring the potential for synergies and design immersive, innovative and unforgettable experiences based on our catalog of worlds."
Storyland's Ubisoft concepts will be primarily indoor and capable of being realized in multiple locations around the world. Storyland expects to start presenting the concepts at the upcoming IAAPA Expo in Orlando this November.
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Fixed that typo, but yeah, now I want a video game-themed attraction that involves competitive deep frying, with guests getting to eat the results. Let's get on that!
Yep. Video games are starting to make an impact into theme parks. I don't know how long until we start to see these proyects in real physical form, or how succesful they Will be, but here they come!!!!
What i AM not is surprised. I called this on a recent tread rigth here.
Let's not get carried away Pabloatthepark. This is just a development contract. We'll see what comes from it and whether the gamers will be willing to come out of cyberspace to actually visit an attraction/park themed around video game IP.
Super Mario World has broken a kind of glass ceiling in applying video game IP in themed entertainment. It will be interesting to see if IP that doesn't have the same awareness in the public consciousness can draw. Ubisoft has a pretty solid stable of IP, but still lags behind Nintendo and a few other developers in the eyes of the GP.
Quite true Rusell. I was just pointing out that the potential is Huge, business are taking notice of the trend, and yes nintendo world is the glass ceiling and all that. I also mentioned that we don't know the time frame for this proyects. But i envision an ever greater integration between video games and themed vacations with time.
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Ubisoft has already slowly begun working its way into themed entertainment (Rabbids in Futuroscope Theme Park and Assassin's Creed escape rooms), but this is a big push. I am having a bit of a hard time envisioning anything outside of Rayman and Rabbids working into an all ages friendly attravion. By the way, it's "Far Cry"....but Fry Cry sounds like a tasty alternative. :-)