Planet Coaster Team Announces Disney Game, Disneyland Park Tycoon Creator Likely

Ever since I’ve been active in the community, Walt Disney World and Disneyland fans have dreamed of playing a Disney Parks Tycoon. Sometimes in the form of a video game, and sometimes in proposing nonsensical changes to the parks. It seems that dream will finally be realized, as Frontier has announced a collaboration with Disney on a new video game. Here’s everything we know, plus a bit of speculation.

As basic background, Frontier Developments has been around since 1994, first producing installments of the Elite franchise. The studio produced a variety of games in the 1990s and aughts, none of which are relevant to this post. One of their most prominent properties was RollerCoaster Tycoon; the developer made several installments of that game before a royalties dispute and sale of RollerCoaster Tycoon back to Atari a couple of years ago.

Frontier Developments has made many other games, including Dog’s Life, Thrillville, and games for the Wallace and Gromit franchise. Frontier has grown immensely over the subsequent three decades with a diverse catalogue of games, enabled by its COBRA technology. One you might’ve heard of is the 2011 Xbox Kinect title, Disneyland Adventures, an open world game that allowed players to explore the park as guests.

We actually bought a Kinect just for Disneyland Adventures! It was well done for what it was, but even with the Disney connection, I have to admit that it wasn’t for me. Our original post about Kinect Disneyland Adventures praised it for the painstaking attention to detail and accuracy, as opposed to being an unrealistic mashup of Walt Disney World and Disneyland like many games. (Amusingly, we also promised a full review that never happened, because I so quickly lost interest in the minigames.)

More recently, Frontier released Planet Coaster, a construction and management simulation video game that’s similar to the RollerCoaster Tycoon franchise. In fact, it seems that most of Frontier’s recent titles are in this genre, and it’s also likely that the Disney Parks game will likewise be of this nature.

According to the press release sent out by the United Kingdom-based developer, the Disney game will be fully funded by Frontier and will build upon their “extensive experience and proven capabilities as a leader in the Creative Management Simulation (CMS) genre.” They reference their successes with the genre-leading Planet Coaster, Planet Zoo, and Jurassic World Evolution franchises, as well as an unannounced Planet game currently in development.

Jo Cooke, Chief Executive Officer of Frontier Developments, had this to say about working with Disney on a game:

We are delighted to announce this collaboration with Disney, which further reinforces our clearly defined strategy of developing and nurturing world-class creative management simulation game franchises.

Our mission with this game is to connect a passionate creative community of players with one of the world’s most iconic and beloved brands, and I can’t wait to see what our talented teams will create with this amazing opportunity.

At present, that’s everything known about the Disney game being developed by Frontier.

From my perspective, the key here is that it’s building upon Frontier’s “extensive experience and proven capabilities as a leader in the Creative Management Simulation (CMS) genre.”

Given that it’ll be a CMS game, I’m struggling to think of what it could conceivably be, if not a Disneyland Tycoon style game. I guess it’s possible that it could involve a specific intellectual property, such as Star Wars or Marvel world-building, but it seems likely that would’ve been mentioned in the press release.

My best guess is that it’s very similar to Planet Coaster. What’ll be most interesting is whether it builds on that foundation and becomes something more expansive, allowing for guests to create something more expansive, like Walt Disney World Resort, or if it’s closer to a Disney-branded reskin of Planet Coaster.

Differentiation would be desired by fans of the franchise, as they don’t simply want to rebuy the same game they already own, EA Sports style. But if the goal is cashing in on the cachet of “Disney,” the target audience might very well be people who have never played Planet Coaster and don’t mind the overlap (or aren’t aware of it).

My guess is that it’s not a simple reskin, as Planet Coaster appears to enable players to build basic amusement parks. I doubt Disney will want to be associated with that look. At minimum, that means attractions (as opposed to rides) that are fitting for a theme park. I’d also imagine that Disney will insist on certain guard rails to prevent users from creating “un-Disney” rides and parks.

But who knows. Disney dove headfirst into that deal with OpenAI on Sora with only cursory consideration of the consequences, so maybe they’re fine taking the money on this licensing deal. It wouldn’t be the first time, but I still doubt it’s what happens here.

Personally, this becomes a lot more appealing to me if it involves development of hotels, shopping and entertainment districts, and even my own Disney Vacation Club properties. Can’t wait to deal with all the paperwork to comply with local timeshare law, and avoid the Aulani debacle! Also curious to discover whether it’s even possible to build a hotel that doesn’t resemble a tall Target store on the outside!

A bit more in the weeds, but I’m also curious as to what they’ll call the game. Although most readers of this website are Walt Disney World-centric, the global brand that is far stronger is Disneyland. (Keep in mind that not only is Disneyland the original, but it’s the name used in Tokyo, Paris, Hong Kong, and Shanghai. Although it’s an international destination, there’s only one Walt Disney World…and plenty of people still manage to call it DisneyLand Florida!)

The other good bit of news is that this is not like the Fortnite deal, which is more of a true partnership. As is clear from the press release, Disney isn’t making any investment in this Frontier CMS game. It’ll be fully-funded by the developer, which means it’s all revenue for Disney. That should make this good or at least neutral news for those who couldn’t care less about video games.

Other than that, I don’t have much to add. Generally speaking, Creative Management Simulation games have not been my cup of tea. Obviously, I am very open to making an exception for a Disneyland Tycoon style game, but I have very little background knowledge to add to the current conversation.

I only wish it were being released about a decade or two earlier, when I had an abundance of free time and could’ve spent hundreds of hours tweaking my perfect park. As it stands, it’s going to take me most of next year just to complete the Resident Evil (Code) Veronica remake!

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