The year 2020 just keeps getting worse and worse - Universal Studios Orlando’s Super Nintendo World theme park has been delayed indefinitely.
This disappointing (while not entirely surprising) news was confirmed yesterday. Orlando’s Super Nintendo World was originally intended to open in 2023 as part of a major expansion to the Universal Studios called “Epic Universe”, a brand new theme park area that spanned across 750 acres of land and featured brand new restaurants, hotels, and the highly anticipated Super Nintendo World park. Unfortunately, those plans have been delayed.
NBC WESH ran the original story, reporting that during Comcast’s Second Quarter 2020 Earnings Conference Call, which took place last week, the company announced that Super Nintendo World in Universal Studios Orlando had been put on hold. Comcast, the parent company of Universal Studios theme parks, still expressed interest in opening the park at a later date. But unfortunately, there is no specific timeline as to when that could happen.
Jeff Shell, CEO of NBCUniversal, commented on the park’s delayed opening, saying, “We are continually adjusting our cost base and capital, including pausing development of our Epic Universe project in Florida, for example, until the future becomes more certain.”
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many theme parks across the world have been hit hard in regards to their profits. Nowadays, with a new virus looming across the world, many patrons don’t want to risk their chances by visiting a theme park. While that line of thinking is certainly responsible and considerate, the decrease in revenue has led parks like Universal Studios Orlando to cut back.
The inaugural Super Nintendo World park in Universal Studios Japan, which was originally set to open this summer to coincide with the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics, also recently broke the news that its opening would be delayed indefinitely. A new opening date will supposedly be announced sometime this fall.
Super Nintendo World is an upcoming theme park area focused on the highly popular Mario franchise from Nintendo. The park will feature a design similar to the Mushroom Kingdom found in the Mario universe. So far, two rides have been confirmed for the park: a ride based on the Mario Kart series as well as an omnimover called “Yoshi’s Adventure.”
Source: Nintendo Soup, WESH
