The Jurassic Park franchise has dipped its toe into the video game market before, but the dinosaur theme park concept never stops inspiring new game ideas. Now a series of cryptic tweets from industry figures and the Jurassic World official accounts seem to imply that a new Jurassic Park game could be released as part of Summer Game Fest.
Speculation began yesterday when the official Jurassic World Twitter account posted a picture of a dinosaur hiding in the underbrush, its slit-pupiled eye peering out through a wall of ferns. Fans may not agree on whether or not Jurassic Park is a horror movie, but it can't be denied that the franchise has produced as many terrifying sights as it has wondrous ones. More importantly, while the scene looks like a still taken from one of the movies, a quick analysis reveals that it more closely resembles the digitally rendered graphics used to create Jurassic World Evolution.
The connection to Jurassic World Evolution and its wide array of mods is interesting, but not enough to confirm that a new game is on the horizon. However, not only did the official Jurassic World: The Game Twitter account reply to the image with a series of eye emojis, Frontier Developments--the developer of Jurassic World Evolution--has been confirmed as one of the official partners for Summer Game Fest. In other words, Frontier Development will definitely be sharing some announcements in the near future, and the developer's existing connection to Jurassic Park suggests that it could return to the franchise.
Of course, all that's been nailed down so far is that Frontier Development will be unveiling something at Summer Game Fest, but the planned appearance of actor Jeff Goldblum during the Kickoff Live show links the announcement back to Jurassic Park. Goldblum, who plays Ian Malcolm in the movies, also lent his voice to Jurassic World Evolution. This suggests that, although there are many Jurassic Park games out there for dinosaur-obsessed gamers, the new one will be related to Jurassic World Evolution in some way.
Summer Game Fest organizer Geoff Keighley added even more evidence to the pile when he tweeted a gif from the original Jurassic Park movie of Goldblum saying "Well, there it is." While nothing has been formally announced just yet, it appears that Frontier Development will be revealing a project directly related to Jurassic Park at Summer Game Fest--possibly as soon as June 10, when the Kickoff Live show will air. As Jurassic World: Dominion gets closer to theatres everywhere, now would be an excellent time to announce a new game and begin building hype for the franchise.
Even if a new Jurassic Park game does end up being announced at Summer Game Fest next week, fans may want to keep their expectations in check. Jurassic World Evolution is a construction and management sim, which means that the more horrifying aspects of the Jurassic Park series aren't guaranteed to appear in a follow-up game.