The Lord of the Rings has a new rights owner. What does that mean?
Embracer has bought a wide range of rights to Tolkien’s works, but there are questions
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Embracer Group, known for an ever-growing collection of video game studios and IP, has swallowed up even more as news that Lord of the Rings and Middle Earth has now fallen under the Embracer umbrella. This means that any new games, television shows, or other types of media that release within Tolkien’s world will do so under the giant burning eye of Embracer Group.
The higher ups at Embracer Group have also shopped around and grabbed a handful of other notable video game companies, including Killing Floor developer Tripwire Interactive (who also published Chivalry 2 in 2021). The developers of Teardown — Tuxedo Labs — have also been acquired.
They’ve also gone and grabbed Limited Run Games! That last one might sound familiar to those with a taste for fancy physical video game releases, as they’ve been creating limited special editions of titles for years now. All in all, it’s a big haul for Embracer, who seem to be inching closer and closer to swallowing up the entire industry every month.
Middle-earth Enterprises, the company that controls licensing rights to The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and other works by J.R.R. Tolkien in that universe, has been acquired by gaming giant Embracer Group. Embracer has entered into a deal with current owner The Saul Zaentz Company, which first acquired rights to The Lord of the Rings in 1976.
The Saul Zaentz Company has been considering selling off Middle-earth Enterprises since early this year, when industry insiders expected Amazon to be the most likely candidate to snap up IP rights. The Middle-earth properties were reportedly valued at at least $2 billion, though both parties have agreed not to disclose the final price decided upon for the sale, which grants Embracer “worldwide rights to motion pictures, video games, board games, merchandising, theme parks and stage productions,” based on Middle-earth.
Embracer will now have financial interest in all upcoming works involving Middle-earth, which there are a lot of. The press release points to Amazon’s massive Rings of Power TV series, which premieres on September 2 on Amazon Prime Video, Warner Bros.’ The War of the Rohirrim animated film, and EA’s upcoming mobile game Heroes of Middle-earth. There’s also Daedalic Entertainment’s Gollum game, and the ongoing development of MMO The Lord Of The Rings Online.
Tech accessory company Drop has released its newest collaboration, this time creating keyboards featuring two famed Lord of the Rings languages, Dwarvish and Elvish. If you’re looking to type in Quenya or in Khuzdul you’ll still have to download a font or two, but if you’re interested in the aesthetics, Drop has you…
This week, Ryan’s back from a long-needed vacation! We catch up on a new Lord of the Rings game coming from Weta Workshop and Private Division as well as talk about games we’re looking forward to hearing about at Gamescom next week! We also anticipate Marvel and Disney rolling out a brand new Games Showcase next month! Tons of fun stuff today, so join us in the comments!
TIMECODES:
00:00:00 – Intro
00:04:50 – Private Division Working on a LOTR Game. Here’s what we want.
00:18:39 – Xbox’s gamescom Showcase News
00:37:10 – Disney & Marvel’s Games Showcase Coming Sept. 9th
00:46:30 – Even More Game Delays!
00:50:16 – Outro
Subscribe on any of your favorite podcast feeds, to our YouTube channel, or grab an MP3 download of this week’s episode. For more awesome content, check out our recent interview with Todd Howard, who answered all of our Starfield questions after the big reveal at the Xbox Showcase:
For more next-gen coverage, make sure to check out our Xbox Series X review, our Xbox Series S review, and our PS5 review.
Ryan McCaffrey is IGN’s executive editor of previews and host of both IGN’s weekly Xbox show, Podcast Unlocked, as well as our monthly(-ish) interview show, IGN Unfiltered. He’s a North Jersey guy, so it’s “Taylor ham,” not “pork roll.” Debate it with him on Twitter at @DMC_Ryan.
Lord of the Rings fans should be happy, as Wētā Workshop is officially working on a new game set in the Middle-earth universe.
Private Division announced the news today (August 15) and will be on publishing duties for the as-of-yet unnamed title. Last year, a job ad for a producer role at Wētā Workshop was advertised, which was supposed to be for a new project based on a “major worldwide IP.” It seems like that IP is in fact Lord of the Rings, which makes a lot of sense considering the studio literally worked on the effects of the original films.
The press release noted that the game is still in “early development,” and doesn’t currently have a release date, but is apparently expected to launch during Take Two’s Fiscal year 2024.