The Embracer Group We are slowly acquiring every video game publisher and studio on the market.announced that it has acquired Middle-earth Enterprises, the company that owns the rights to most of JRR Tolkien’s most important works. Lord of the Ring When Hobbit.
Some background: Middle-earth Enterprises was a division of The Saul Zaentz Company, a Hollywood production studio that in 1976 was able to acquire almost all rights to Tolkien, with the exception of the publication of the book itself. These rights were used to create the 1978 animated feature and have since been sold outright, only licensed to other companies, operations overseen by the Middle-earth Corporation. I never did.
That means everything from Peter Jackson movies to EA video games to Amazon’s upcoming TV series. Borrow of Lord of the Ring license. Ownership was still with the Saul Zaentz Company. Or has ever been.
The Saul Zaentz Company sold its rights earlier this year for a staggering $2 billion.and the Embracer’s purchase price was not disclosed in their announcement, but I believe the price they paid was somewhere in that range.[[[[update: in another announcementEmbracer said the total cost of all acquisitions made today is SEK8.2 billion, approximately US$770 million.].
Street in announcementthe purchase covers almost everything you associate with Lord of the Ring beyond the publication of The book itself (Harper owns the rights)Collins)include:
Major upcoming works set in Middle-earth, in which Middle-earth Enterprises has a financial interest, include the much-heralded Amazon series. Lord of the rings: Ring of power Premieres September 2, 2022 and is set thousands of years ago Hobbit When Lord of the Ring; animated movies Lord of the Rings: War of the Rohirim (Warner Bros.), due for release in 2024, and mobile game Lord of the Rings: Heroes of Middle-earth (Electronic Arts).
The press release also details what Embracer wants to do with this license in the future.
Other opportunities include exploring additional films based on iconic characters such as Gandalf, Aragorn, Gollum, Galadriel, Éowyn, and other characters from J.R.R. experience continues to provide new opportunities for fans to explore this fictional world. .
Embracer owns both a number of video game studios and board game company Asmodee (which owns Fantasy Flight), so expect a slew of licensed games to follow suit (Asmodee already Lord of the Ring board game license).
Of course, in addition to Embracer’s acquisition of Middle-earth Enterprises, physical copy experts Limited Run Games and Tripwire Interactive (Killing floor, chivalry), Tuxedo Labs (tear down) and in a strangely poetic move, given the buyer in question, the Japanese studio guru. Their boss is the co-founder of Toaplan, zero wingthe game from which the “All bases are ours” meme originated.
