14 DAY TRIAL // Nintendo is apparently intent on turning a profit from now on, after a couple of years spent in the negative, and maybe even showing a change in mentality.
Its games have been selling well, with Pokemon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire and Super Smash Bros. managing to score around 10 million units each, and with the Wii U exclusive Mario Kart 8 surpassing the 5 million mark.
Even The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask 3D sold 2 million copies, and it’s just a remake. Things are definitely looking good.
The Amiibos, the recently released toy-to-life line of figurines, have also been a resounding success, with Nintendo selling over 10 million units worldwide, in spite of frequent supply shortages.
In addition to this, Nintendo also announced its plans to step into the world of mobile gaming, an area that has been steadily encroaching on its handheld gaming device business. This will allow the company to bring its popular franchises to a fresh audience, and the Big N believes that this will in turn lead to an increase in its home console business.
But there’s another area Nintendo has set its eyes on now, one that nobody actually expected to see it step into but many people hoped it would. The Japanese corporation announced its plans to bring its iconic characters and worlds to Universal Parks.
Theme parks feel like a natural fit for Nintendo
Now, Universal already has a pretty solid offering when it comes to theme parks, featuring Marvel and Harry Potter content, among others, and judging by the announcement, Nintendo isn’t getting its own dedicated theme parks, but instead some attractions in already existing parks.
While the discussion has been pretty active among Nintendo’s fandom, there was nothing to suggest that Nintendo was actually going to do it. People have already come up with some amazing ideas on Reddit, but for the time being, there is no information on the actual nature and content of the rides.
In any case, one thing is for certain, a lot of kids had better learn to love rides featuring Mario, Zelda and Kirby, because their parents are going to take them to those places a lot.
The obvious first things you might think about are Mario Kart-themed bumper cars and even an actual karting course, perhaps one without as many blue shells, because nobody likes losing the race in the last couple of seconds.
The possibilities are pretty much endless, and this is something that could most likely turn into something in the vein of a dream come true for many people, pretty much like visiting Disneyland or Legoland already is for a lot of enthusiastic fans.
This is also a very lucrative endeavor for the company, especially when taking into account the wild popularity of the Amiibo toys. Just think about it, you go for a Pokemon boat ride, you whack some Pikachu, and then you can purchase miniatures and other such fluff that gives you a new background for your 3DS.
The most important advantage Nintendo has is that it can always create some additional value for pretty much everything, just like in the case of the Amiibos. The more games the company integrates NFC technology into, the more value you’ll get from your purchase.
That can become even crazier with exclusives and other things that Nintendo fans usually tend to go overboard on, and to tell the truth, who wouldn’t like to get more of something that already is awesome?
Things seem to be moving forward for a change
As you probably know, Nintendo is notorious for being overly conservative and even behind the times when it comes to a lot of things, including support for third-party developers, and especially the indie scene.
Let’s not forget the recent debacle with YouTube entertainers, when Nintendo issued claims on a ton of videos from Let’s Players and reviewers and instated some absurd terms for those still willing to cover its video games.
A lot of prominent Internet personalities were outraged by how the Japanese corporation handled a thing that it clearly did not understand, whitelisting select titles that can be talked about while essentially bullying people into an unfavorable contract, with the alternative being losing all the advertising revenue from the videos.
These recent initiatives, however, have been quite bold and they could mark an evolution in the way Nintendo approaches its properties. The franchises have been fiercely guarded up until now, but it seems that the company is more willing to experiment with how people can enjoy them.