Frontier announce third Jurassic World game and two other management sims

Pteranodon-fanciers and Stegosaur-whisperers, please throw your velociraptor-skin hats skyward in adulation. Frontier have partnered with Universal to make a third Jurassic World videogame. It's one of three new management games inbound from the Elite Dangereux developer over the next few years, including a game based on one of Frontier's own intellectual properties.

All this is part of Frontier's recent decision to double down on what they're calling the "creative management sim" genre - I hadn't come across "creative management sim" prior to writing this post, and I'm not sure how I feel about it. Actually seems quite cosy? Also probably sinister? Anyway, here's a chunk from the announcement release:

"Over the last twelve months Frontier has refined its strategy to focus on its leading position in the creative management simulation ('CMS') genre, with four successful titles already in its portfolio; Planet Coaster, Planet Zoo, and the first two Jurassic World Evolution games. Over the next three consecutive financial years, Frontier plans to release one new CMS game per year; the development of the unannounced own-IP CMS game for FY25 is on track and Frontier expects to announce the title in the coming months; the third Jurassic World game confirmed today is scheduled for FY26; and a third unannounced CMS game is planned for FY27."

To rephrase those dates according to the time systems of we lower lifeforms: the currently owned-IP game (top possibilities include a new Planet Coaster) should release between 1st June 2024 and 31st May 2025, with the new Jurassic World game coming between 1st June 2025 and 31st May 2026, and the final unannounced management sim arriving between 1st June 2026 and 31st May 2027.

Frontier's previous Jurassic Parking simulators aren't among our favourite management games. "Jurassic World Evolution is the most boring of all possible outcomes for a dinosaur theme park sim," Fraser Brown - who was an RPS contributor before he snuck off Dennis Nedry-style to sell our experimental journo-DNA to PCGamer - wrote in 2018. "There's no outlet for creativity and, aside from the prehistoric pals you might make, managing the parks just isn't a lot of fun."

Nate Crowley was more positive about Jurassic World Evolution 2 in 2021, calling it "a magnificent feat of adaptation stretched over the bones of an inconsistent management game."

Despite these mixed verdicts, the two games are Frontier best-sellers - right up there with Elite Dangeresque, which is currently the subject of an alleged pay-to-win controversy over the sale of a powerful starship. "Jurassic World Evolution and Jurassic World Evolution 2 rank first and second respectively within Frontier's game portfolio in terms revenue generated in their first two years," the release notes, "with Jurassic World Evolution being Frontier's best-selling game to date since its release almost six years ago." Way to make us look out-of-touch, Frontier!