FoxNext

FoxNext, LLC was a virtual reality and theme park unit of 20th Century Fox, now known as 20th Century Studios. It was established in 2017 prior to Disney's acquisition of Fox and operated under the Disney Parks, Experiences and Products unit of The Walt Disney Company. It handled the development and publishing of virtual reality and augmented reality titles, as well as the development of 20th Century Studios's theme and amusement parks. The division's president was Salil Mehta, a former executive from NBCUniversal and The Walt Disney Company, who has been with Fox since 2013 and later returned to Disney after Disney acquired Fox in 2019 until on January 23, 2020, when the company's gaming assets were sold to Scopely.

History

Formation

FoxNext was formed on January 18, 2017, with the announcement of Salil Mehta as division president transferring from his prior post as president of content management for Twentieth Century Fox Film. The division president would answer to chairman and CEO of Fox Networks Group, and chairman and CEO of Twentieth Century Fox Film, who at the time were Peter Rice and Stacey Snider, respectively.

Theme parks

Twentieth Century Fox Consumer Products announced a series of Twentieth Century Fox World theme parks in Asia in early to mid-2010s. Fox and Genting Malaysia Berhad agreed in 2013 to build a Twentieth Century Fox World theme park, the first such branded park.[22] With Village Roadshow Theme Parks in 2014, Fox agreed to build a Fox World in South Korea.[23] In November 2015, Fox and Al Ahli Holding Group agreed to build a 20th Century Fox World near Dubai in United Arab Emirates[24] under an agreement that would allow Al Ahli to build a total of four Fox Worlds outside of the US.[25]

Twentieth Century Fox Consumer Products and Genting Malaysia Berhad agreed in 2013 to build a Twentieth Century Fox World theme park, the first such branded park. Genting funded the $300 million, 25 acre, park which consisted of 25 rides and attractions based on Fox films.[22] 20th Century Fox issued a default notice in regards to its licensing agreement for the then-under construction 20th Century Fox World theme park in Malaysia by Genting Malaysia Bhd. In November 2018 Genting Malaysia filed suit in response and included soon to be parent The Walt Disney Company.[11] The two parties settled out of court in July 2019 in which the Fox name would be dropped from the park while certain Fox properties would be available for Genting to finish the park with the addition of non-Fox properties.[12] In May 2020, the Genting Group confirmed that the new name for the park would be called Genting SkyWorlds.[26]

With Village Roadshow Theme Parks in 2014, Fox agreed to build a 75-acre Fox World in 700-acre Ungdong Entertainment Complex, Changwon City, South Korea. Village Roadshow would operate the park.[23] Fox may have backed off from the Ungdong location due to the investigation into South Gyeongsang Governor Hong Joon-pyo. By May 16, 2015, Fox Global Location Based Entertainment was looking at building a theme park on Yeongjong Island, Incheon with Incheon Metropolitan Government as a potential investor.[27]

On 29 April 2018, the park was put on indefinite hold by the Al Ahli Group amid concerns from its CEO Mohammed Khammas that there was a "serious supply" of theme parks in Dubai.[25]

Locations

20th Century Fox World (Malaysia)
20th Century Fox World (Dubai) – planned location in Dubai that began development in 2015,[28][29] but the project was later put on indefinite hold in 2018.[25]
20th Century Fox World (South Korea)

type	Subsidiary
fate	Closed by Disney; gaming assets sold to Scopely
industry	Video games Amusement parks
predecessors	Fox Digital Entertainment
successors	Scopely 20th Century Games
founded	January 18, 2017
defunct	January 23, 2020
hq location city	Los Angeles, California
hq location country	U.S.
area served	Worldwide
key people	Salil Mehta (president) James Finn (executive vice President, head of marketing)
parent	Fox Entertainment Group (2017–2019) Disney Parks, Experiences and Products (2019–2020)
website	www.foxnext.com (archived in April 29, 2019) (now deleted)

History

Formation

Sale of assets to Scopely

Legacy

Assets

Theme parks

Locations

Virtual reality

Video games

External links

References