Just days after Disney announced a deal with the creator of Fortnite, Universal's theme parks have teamed up with Minecraft.
Universal Destinations & Experiences has announced that Everbloom Games has created a Universal Studios Experience DLC (downloadable content) for Minecraft. This new Minecraft adventure map recreates attractions from Universal Studios theme parks around the world.
Players can go on adventures inspired by Universal Studios Hollywood's Jurassic World – The Ride, Universal Studios Florida's Revenge of the Mummy, Islands of Adventure's Skull Island: Reign of Kong, Universal Beijing's Jurassic World Innovation Center, and Universal Studios Japan's Jaws ride, among others. Past attractions are represented, too, via the inclusion of an adventure inspired by Back to the Future – The Ride.
Along the way, players can complete a quest to gather missing letters from the Universal Studios globe. Some classic Universal characters can help, while others will stand in the way.
The Universal Studios Experience DLC is now available on the Minecraft website.
Over at Disney, the company last week announced a $1.5 billion investment in Epic Games, the maker of Fortnite. Disney has used Epic's Unreal Engine in the development of multiple theme park attractions, including Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run. As part of the new agreement, Disney and Epic will collaborate on all-new games and an entertainment universe that includes Disney Parks content, as well a pretty much everything else in Disney's portfolio, including Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, and Avatar.
Fortnite has a well-established history of collaborations with artists and brands, so it has moved far beyond its origins with apocalyptic and battle royale games. For Disney, Fortnite provides an attractive platform for the type of metaverse environment for its content and experiences that the company was working on independently, before shuttering that project.
It's also interesting to note who teamed up with whom here. In recent years, Universal has been pushing to capture more of the early-elementary market that traditionally has been associated with Disney. At the same time, Disney has been trying to diversify to appeal to more of the older kids who previously might have "aged out" of Disney and switched their affinity to Universal.
With Universal partnering the younger-skewing Minecraft and Disney teaming up with Fortnite, that trend seems to be continuing in video games.
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