How Sega and Disney Doomed DisneyQuest
So we have ended one of the final chapters of the Downtown Disney saga. As Disney fully does its complete 180 and fully transforms Downtown Disney into Disney Springs, the infamous indoor theme park adventure/park/interactive experience/not really sure what it wants to be became one of the long-awaited casualties. We can dwell into the dozens of reasons why DisneyQuest failed and floundered within years, but we’ll have to also look at a console that may have had a major hand in the diminishing results of a building that with a little extra innovation and love could have evolved into a major player in the gaming industry today.
1998 was when DisneyQuest made its debut. Originally starting in Orlando, the plan was to branch these out around the country, maybe the world (Because Disney does that…a lot). Ultimately the appeal was that once you paid to get in, all the arcade games and entertainment options were included. The idea of playing a game like Star Wars or Daytona USA as many times as you want was quite appealing, especially those that would spend a dozen dollars trying to get past the Washington Bullets in NBA Jam (Yea, this got personal). Then you were able to play a few virtual reality/interactive games, build your own roller coaster, make your own music, and even design your own character. The gaming part was the big draw however, as arcades was still a hot commodity in the 1990s.
The 90s gave us arcade smash hits like Mortal Kombat, NBA Jam, one of a trillion versions of Street Fighter, Daytona U.S.A., Star Wars Trilogy Arcade, Turtles in Time, Simpsons Arcade, among others. But it would also mark as its final great decade as we started seeing some of these classic arcade games past and present being ported to consoles that were starting to catch up in terms of processing power. A lot happened between the good-but-still-lacking port of Killer Instinct on the SNES and the shockingly-accurate port of Soul Calibur. Technology was allowing for these arcade games to translate well into console format. Great news for gamers, awful, awful news for arcade places like DisneyQuest.
Ironically it would be Sega that would create the first console to truly make some superb translations that would doom DisneyQuest, because Sega and Disney had a special relationship back in the 90s that resulted in Epcot receiving Sega consoles and displaying them at Innoventions and the Genesis receiving the superior versions of Mickey Mouse games, Aladdin, and Lion King. 1998 was also the year Japan got the Sega Dreamcast, which was the beginning of the sixth generation of gaming. However, Sega realized that the software needed some heavy boosting, especially with the PS2 and its backwards-compatibility looming. They needed to do something quick. So they turned to the one remaining block that made them money: arcades.
Sega Dreamcast would become the new home of Soul Calibur, Virtua Fighter, Virtua Tennis, Marvel vs. Capcom, Daytona U.S.A., Crazy Taxi, Dead or Alive, and many other arcade staples. And this was on top of already seeing the Playstation getting the mega-popular Mortal Kombat, Tekken and Street Fighter games. So we are witnessing all the reasons to go to the arcades being released in portable form. We are seeing the greatest games no longer in arcades, we are seeing them in the consoles. We are seeing companies like Sony and Sega paying hand over fist to see these great arcade gems evolve into the Saturn, Playstation, Dreamcast (the all-time greatest console for arcade games), and eventually the Playstation 2. And even if the Dreamcast didn’t benefit from the idea the damage was done. Sega had revolutionized the console gaming market by proving that not only could the consoles handle powerful arcade games, but can improve on them and profit off of them. They tested it lightly with the Saturn, and dove right in come Dreamcast time.
After the initial launch, DisneyQuest didn’t really evolve much. They subtracted more than they added. They changed cabinets here and there, upgraded a couple times but it wasn’t enough to get guests and locals to spend the money. Even more frustrating to Disney was that arcade places were once again on the rise, but whether used the sports bar technique (Dave and Busters) or used the similar technique of pay-once-play-unlimited at much cheaper prices (The awesome Player One Video Game Bar is the top Central Florida example). As the years wore on, we were seeing no new major rides, no new enhancements, and worst of all a pure lack of exclusivity and attempt to cater to the market. The designing studios never improved upon the 1998 iteration, even if the technology for video, animation, and music was far superior and far more accessible. To this day I’m upset we couldn’t improve the building-a-roller-coaster experience to include scenes from Disney movies past and present. I would have loved to make a roller coaster based off the Cave of Wonders scene in Aladdin.
Virtual reality was not the future as they had envisioned, which is why Chicago shut down the only other DisneyQuest, and is why the Orlando installment couldn’t resonate. But instead of putting a finger to the pulse of what could have worked (video games, you know, that one industry making more money than movies), Disney rode the wave until it would crash and would require an eventual shutdown. The rumors had been flying since the mid-2000s about DisneyQuest’s final hours. But in the mid-2000s even though Sega has become a third-party company the gaming industry was exploding. From the record-breaking Playstation 2 to the powerhouse Nintendo Wii, gaming was the top entertainment commodity with games capable of earning hundreds of millions in 24 hours. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, a 2003 game released during DisneyQuest’s “Not gonna change anything” era grossed a billion plus. That’s just one game. Why on earth couldn’t they take the one lone facet that made Quest a somewhat viable visit and expand upon it?
Ultimately, gamers were the last great big group going to Quest. And this was no secret. Why Disney wouldn’t even try to continuously reach out to them is a rather baffling mystery. Why not create exclusive arcade games for DisneyQuest? Wreck-It Ralph actually gave DisneyQuest a minimal boost by re-introducing the world to Fix-It Felix the arcade game and pretty much being the only major location to carry them. Exclusive content will bring people from all over the planet. Disney World in hindsight is an exclusive product, you can’t get the vastness of Disney in Orlando anywhere else. This is why Magic Kingdom still gets 20 million visitors a year despite skyrocketing prices and increasing global competition. So why didn’t DisneyQuest try to become a major point in the map of gamers worldwide?
Imagine being the only place with a Hercules arcade game, an Aladdin arcade game, or major arcade versions of full-length Disney adventures like Tarzan, Atlantis, Treasure Planet, Tron, Pirates of the Caribbean, and so much more. Imagine DisneyQuest getting the only Cars arcade game, which would have 8-12 guests race against each other in a connected arcade format. Now replace the word “Cars” with “Tron”, or even the gaming-friendly Disney film “Wreck-It Ralph”. Imagine an Incredibles arcade game which allows you to play one of dozens of adventures Mr. Incredible was involved in before ultimately becoming a family man. Imagine all the superheroes you could have made games of from the Incredibles universe. The Disney brand has Pixar, LucasArts, and Marvel under its belt. You couldn’t do more to improve a building lacking content? We’d even settle for some rare imported arcade games from Japan.
Imagine DisneyQuest taking advantage of the competitive gaming industry and create tournaments and special events to reach out to the professional gamers. Imagine DisneyQuest being part of the cosplay market and creating special events. DisneyQuest was in a prime location: free parking, at the front-end of dozens of entertainment and dining options. Even at its worst, Downtown Disney still offered tons to do and wasn’t just an off-road blimp in Orlando. From Pleasure Island to Splitsville, thousands upon thousands of guests visit the West Side to Marketplace belt daily and nightly. Failing to nab a percentage of the local and tourist crowd was a mistake pure and simple, a very preventable one.
In my eyes, I would have transformed DisneyQuest into a piece of gaming heaven. I would have made this place a great gamer’s club, with a monthly fee but unlimited access, and with the option of one-day visits for those that don’t live in the area. I would have made this place the first stop for upcoming video games, upcoming movies, upcoming projects, and plenty of exciting conventions. I would have made this place tournament-heavy, complete with viewing locations scattered around the building for those that can’t access the top floor where all the action is taking place. I would have given DisneyQuest a restaurant with some exclusive cuisine, with the gift shop on the bottom offering little samples of the magic that can be found upstairs. I would give the kids the second and third floor, then left the serious gamers to claim the top two floors.
Disney is far too smart and far too successful a company to the drop the ball so severely by accident. Disney more than likely didn’t see a future with Quest (especially after seeing all their arcade cabinets become Dreamcast and PS2 games) and chose to let it die without truly giving it the proper makeover it so desperately needed. But with a bit of ingenuity, a little changing, and plenty of extra love it could have made Quest one of the top gaming destinations in the entire world. Similar to how Hollywood Studios and Epcot are getting an epic makeover, DisneyQuest was a decent renovation away from becoming the powerhouse success it was envisioned to become back in 1998.
DisneyQuest from beginning to end was a place with plenty of potential, met with a disappointing performance marred by a successful company that to this day still hasn’t quite figured out how to handle, manage, and thrive in the cutthroat and ever-evolving industry of gaming.