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The DeanBeat: Why Universal went all-in on Jurassic World games

  • Posted byby Dean Takahashi
  • Updated
  • 5 min

When the blockbuster film Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom debuted on June 22, it came with a bunch of Jurassic World games. Normally, based on video game industry history, that would be cause for alarm, as most movie games suck. But in this case, the games are turning out to be both profitable and a boost for the Jurassic World franchise.

That’s the view from Chris Heatherly, executive vice president of games and digital platforms at Universal Brand Development. He joined Comcast NBCUniversal after leaving Disney in early 2017, and his charter has been to build a game business based on Universal’s film portfolio. Heatherly has built the this team to 60 people, and they’re working closely with external developers on new titles.

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Written by

Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.