Mojang Studios and Merlin Entertainment are teaming up to open an official Minecraft theme park, which they’ve appropriately named Minecraft World. Announced earlier today during the Minecraft Live showcase, Minecraft World is tentatively set to open its doors at some point in 2027 and will seemingly be fused with the preexisting Chessington World of Adventures theme park in Greater London. It’ll even have its own roller coaster
According to the official statement on Merlin Entertainment’s website, Minecraft World will cost £50 million (just shy of $70 million) to develop and will feature “a world-first Minecraft coaster, themed retail and dining, plus a host of fan favourites and ridiculous fun from the Minecraft universe.”
Based on the mock-up images in Merlin Entertainment’s press release, the theme park is still very much in the planning phase. Minecraft World will also apparently be designed in “collaboration with a selection of iconic Minecraft creators to help bring the universe to life in the most authentic way possible,” although no specific “creators” have been announced at this time.
Minecraft World isn’t the first video game theme park to open up in the past decade, as the likes of PokéPark Kanto in Japan and Super Nintendo World in Orlando’s Universal Studios opened up in the past few years. It is, however, the first video game theme park based on an official IP to open up in the United Kingdom.
Personally, as someone from the UK, I’d have much rather preferred the Pokémon or Mario theme parks myself, but hey, I’m sure there are tens of thousands of Brits who are thrilled to hear this news. Gonna be a nightmare driving up the M25 if this coincides with the release of the second Minecraft movie though.