While Nintendo’s Super Nintendo World might be the video game theme park that most people make plans to visit in the near future, it sounds like Sony is very keen to get involved in some IP-to-destination attraction action while things are going well.
During a recent interview with Variety linked to the opening of the new jumanji rides at Chessington World of Adventures in England, Merlin Entertainments (which manages multiple parks including Chessington and Legoland) CEO Scott O’Neil and Sony Pictures partnerships executive VP Jeffrey Godsick were emphatic about how this new era of theme parks being defined by technology “merge with IP merging with imagination.” Translated into more mainstream English, the companies seem interested in taking advantage of even more of Sony’s sizable IP catalog of heavily branded attractions, a move that O’Neil says Merlin has identified as integral to success in the “location” business. based entertainment”. ” company.
“There’s always room for creative expression and individual attractions,” O’Neil said. “However, there is a flight to quality, and in the mind of consumers and our guests, some of that quality is tied to ‘Is this a brand I know? Is this a brand I love?’”
If Variety notes, World of Jumanji is the latest development to come out of last March’s partnership between Merlin and Sony, which gave Merlin the rights to Jumanjithemed rides in several parks in North America and Europe. World of Jumanji comes on the heels of the launch of Jumanji The Adventure, a “dark ride” in Italy’s Gardaland, and the $21 million invested in the new ride shows how the company’s rides are growing in size.
Naturally, Jumanjiis just part of Sony’s IP. But Ghostbusters, which Godsick suggested Merlin might also be able to use again after Ghostbusters 5D for Germany’s Heide Park, is another, and the company is well aware of how well-received Super Nintendo World has been. Godsick also noted that with this partnership, Sony is “watching everything across the board – not just in movies – in all of the IP content we have.”
O’Neil’s insistence that “it’s not escaped our notice what’s been really successful”, regarding the partnership between Universal and Nintendo, can be interpreted in a number of different ways. But given what the companies are doing jumanji and Sony’s continued efforts to turn its games into viable movie franchises, it wouldn’t be at all surprising if we heard about PlayStation-centric theme parks sooner rather than later.
