Announcement of Jurassic World video game tie-in sends Frontier shares roaring ahead

Video game studio Frontier Developments announced its third major self-published video game, Jurassic World Evolution was slated for release in June 2018 and would be based on the popular Jurassic World universe.

The release date of the title would coincide with the 25th anniversary of the original film based on Michael Crichton's 1990 science fiction novel, Jurassic Park and the next chapter in the series, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, the direct sequel to 2015's Jurassic World, which holds the fourth best box office performance in history with a worldwide total of $1.67bn collected against a $150m budget.

Johnny Watts, chief executive of Frontier, said, "As long-time fans of the entire Jurassic series we're thrilled to be putting players in charge of their own Jurassic World. We're excited to bring over fifteen years of management, simulation, and creature development expertise to a destination and franchise that remains an inspiration to us."

Harold Evans, an analyst at finnCap, said adding the existing popularity of the brand to the fact that the game would be released in conjunction with the new film property, would create considerable cross-promotional advantages.

"The combination of Jurassic Park’s global appeal, the likely level of publicity ahead of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, and Frontier’s proven expertise suggest that Frontier’s third self-published franchise will be its most successful to date," said Evans.

Frontier chief executive David Braben also noted, "It will be our first self-published title to debut on PC, PlayStation and Xbox simultaneously, and the first to benefit from such a major marketing event as the theatrical release of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom."

After rising as much as 26% on the day, shares had dropped back slightly to 843.00, an increase of 15.32% on the day as of 1135 BST.