Embracer Group has said the Lord of the Rings intellectual property (IP) is performing “well ahead” of the business plan it set out when it bought the franchise in 2022.
Money generated by Middle-earth Enterprises grew significantly after “strong” licensing revenue for The Lord of the Rings, Embracer said in its financial report for the three months ending June 30.
In June, Embracer stressed the importance of "exploiting Lord of the Rings in a very significant fashion" by turning it into “one of the biggest gaming franchises in the world”.
The comments came amid a costly restructure of the gargantuan game business, which announced plans to cancel in-development projects, shut studios, and lay off an unspecified number of staff.
In an open letter to the company’s 17,000 staff, CEO Lars Wingefors said Embracer would decrease spending across the board, reduce third-party publishing, and “put greater focus on internal IP and increase external funding of large-budget games”.
Two months later, it seems Lord of the Rings is paying off for the company. “The performance of Middle-earth Enterprises is well ahead of the business plan developed at the time of acquisition a year ago,” Embracer boss Lars Wingefors said.
Wizards of the Coast recently released Magic the Gathering trading card game The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth (the one with the $2 million card). Free Range Games’ PC and console survival crafting game The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria is set for release later this year. Embracer said “many other exciting new products that will grow the IP further” are in the works.
However, all is not well in the world of Lord of the Rings-related video games. The Lord of the Rings: Gollum suffered a disastrous release in May, one that led to Daedelic shutting down its internal development arm and laying off 25 people.
Embracer bought the rights to The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit for nearly $400 million in August 2022 and announced plans to explore opportunities to create new games, movies, and more based on the famous intellectual property.
In May, Embracer announced it had signed a deal with Amazon Games for the developer of New World to create a new MMO based on The Lord of the Rings.
The massively multiplayer online game, which is completely separate from 2007's The Lord of the Rings Online and from Amazon's previously cancelled Lord of the Rings MMO, is currently in the early stages of development and as of yet has no official title.
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
