Mojang Studios has announced a Minecraft theme park will open in the UK next year, along with a sequel to Minecraft Dungeons.
Europeans might not have easy access to Super Nintendo World, which is only in Japan and the US, but if you’re partial to a chicken jockey, UK residents are in luck.
During Minecraft Live on Saturday (March 21), Mojang Studios and Merlin Entertainments announced plans to open a £50 million Minecraft theme park land within Chessington World Of Adventures near London.
Minecraft World, set to open in 2027, promises the world’s first ‘Minecraft coaster’, themed retail and dining, interactive adventures and ‘epic block built playscapes’.
You can get a glimpse of what the park will hopefully look like in this concept art, which shows underground dining experiences lit by torches, a gift shop, towering structures, and a coaster surrounded by TNT blocks and creepers.
Speaking about the park, Angela Jobson, senior vice president of global brand at Merlin Entertainments, said: ‘We’re absolutely thrilled to be bringing Minecraft’s creativity, bold adventures, and ridiculous fun to life at a theme park for the first time at Chessington World Of Adventures.
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‘Minecraft World will allow friends and families to play, explore and craft together on a truly epic scale. Working closely with Mojang Studios we are meticulously creating an authentic world that the global community of Minecraft fans will want to immerse themselves in and experience the game in a whole new way.’
Considering the UK usually gets overlooked when it comes to video game parks and shops (where is our permanent Pokémon Center, Nintendo?), this is pretty unexpected – especially as Mojang Studios is based in Stockholm, Sweden.
However, this likely has a lot to do with the fact that Merlin recently sold back its Legoland theme parks to Lego (who sold it to them when they were going through a rough patch a few decades ago), leaving Merlin looking for another family friendly cash cow to partner with.
Along with Minecraft World, Mojang also announced Minecraft Dungeons 2, a sequel to 2020’s action spin-off, which is set to launch in 2026 across PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch 2, Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series X/S, and PC.
The announcement trailer doesn’t show much aside from a logo, but a description reads: ‘Return to the world of Minecraft Dungeons in an all new action RPG adventure, brimming with high stakes encounters, thrilling challenges, and never before seen locations, as you set out to save a world in crisis.’
Minecraft Dungeons didn’t set the world alight with critics, but it proved to be very successful. The game surpassed 25 million unique players in September 2023, so a sequel was perhaps inevitable.
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