Universal is partnering with Ludia to release Jurassic World Alive this summer ahead of the release of the Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom movie. This is looking like Pokemon GO (Free) meets dinosaurs, as you walk around real-world locations, and collect dinosaurs that appear in the wild. You can train your dinosaurs, raise them into more powerful ones, and fight them against other players’ dinos. Expect some real-world dinosaurs, along with a bunch of hybrid creatures that the Jurassic World movies introduced to the franchise. If you pre-register on the Jurassic World Alive site, you can get a free incubator when the game launches.
Will Jurassic World Alive do well? Any geolocation-based game has a tough hill to climb because it involves getting people out of their homes to play, and there are many people that just do not interact with mobile games in that way. Pokemon GO (Free) is the exception because it hit critical mass as the first Pokemon game for mobile, and the series’ stated “gotta catch ’em all" ethos played a big role, too. Will catching dinosaurs bring the same thrill? I’m not sure, especially when the series has made it pretty damn clear that dinosaurs on the mainland are a terrible idea.
Of course, Ludia has done well with previous Jurassic World games. And if Ludia’s able to advance on the Pokemon GO concept, perhaps, and have things like trading and better PvP battles than Pokemon GO has, well, maybe they can make Jurassic World Alive hotter than a hundred shirtless photos of Jeff Goldblum when the game releases this summer.