Embracer Group is buying The Lord of the Rings IP rights, Tripwire Interactive, and more

[midian182]

What just happened? Embracer Group is continuing its apparent quest to own the entire entertainment industry with six more acquisition agreements that include the purchase of Limited Run Games, Tripwire Interactive, and the rights to Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, and their related properties—but not the books themselves.

Swedish media holding giant Embracer Group is already the parent company of several massive industry players, including THQ Nordic, Gearbox Interactive, Dark Horse Media, and more. Back in May, it agreed to add Square Enix Montréal, Eidos Montréal, and Crystal Dynamics to its roster.

Among the new acquisitions made through its Freemode subsidiary is Middle-earth Enterprises, granting it IP rights to Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit that cover everything from movies, TV shows, video games, merchandising, and board games, to stage plays and even theme-park rights; the literary works are owned by Tolkien Estate. Precisely how much Embracer has agreed to pay The Saul Zaentz Company for Middle-earth Enterprises hasn't been revealed "due to commercial reasons."

The LoTR rights also include Amazon's upcoming The Rings of Power series that arrives on September 2. Embracer writes that it could explore "additional movies based on iconic characters such as Gandalf, Aragorn, Gollum, Galadriel, Eowyn and other characters from the literary works of J.R.R. Tolkien."

Another acquisition announced by Embracer Group is Tripwire Interactive, whose games include the Killing Floor series, Chivalry 2, and Maneater. It's also acquiring Teardown developer Tuxedo Labs, home karaoke system Singtrix, and Limited Run, which creates special physical editions of games from smaller devs.

All purchase prices are undisclosed, though the upfront costs total $557 million. There was also a secret, sixth acquisition that Embracer hasn't announced due to the familiar "commercial reasons." It's a company within the PC/console gaming space, and the deal is "in the range of being among either third or fourth largest of the transactions."

Following Embracer Group's buyout of Square Enix Montréal, Eidos Montréal, and Crystal Dynamics, the company announced its intentions to create brand-new content for some of its newly acquired intellectual properties. That potentially covers new movies, games, and merchandise for the likes of Tomb Raider and Hitman and the resurrection of franchises such as Deus Ex, Legacy of Kain, and Thief.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/95669-embracer-group-buying-lord-rings-ip-rights-tripwire.html

 

[Ohnooze]

I would LOVE to see a new LOTR MMO.
As for future film....I don't know. I mean if they stick to making good film and stay away from woke stuff I'm all in. But as soon as elves start announcing they are nonbinary I'm out.

 

[dirtyferret]

One can only hope Embracer Group keeps the time honored tradition of never putting out a good RPG in a IP that has influenced literally every Fantasy RPG out there directly or indirectly.

 

[mbrowne5061]

How much do you want to bet that the "sixth" transaction was the purchase of either EA or Ubisoft?

 

[terzaerian]

One can only hope Embracer Group keeps the time honored tradition of never putting out a good RPG in a IP that has influenced literally every Fantasy RPG out there directly or indirectly.

As a longtime fan of LOTR specifically, I'm frankly more okay with the franchise not having RPGs, honestly. Introducing homebrewed characters into a legendarium like Tolkien's feels nigh-sacrilegious. Franchises like D&D and The Elder Scrolls are built for that purpose.

 

[passwordistaco]

I expected the Tolkien rights alone to be closer to a billion. Embracer has been making some killer deals.

 

[SirDigby]

Holy heck I saw this this morning from a small news site so didn't believe it.... LOTR is my all time favourite series, and I would adore more games to come out but I really want them to be good.

 

[urielejh]

And they won't let the Microsoft acti-blizz acquisition viable?

 

[dirtyferret]

As a longtime fan of LOTR specifically, I'm frankly more okay with the franchise not having RPGs, honestly. Introducing homebrewed characters into a legendarium like Tolkien's feels nigh-sacrilegious. Franchises like D&D and The Elder Scrolls are built for that purpose.

I'm not talking about a game like War in the North that does introduce homebrewed characters into the books/movies. Bioware showed how a great RPG can live within an IP without it changing the sacred movies/books.

LOTRO is about as close as it gets to decent LOTR rpg but it seems to never be sure if it wants to be a single player RPG or multiplayer game and does neither well. Plus it's graphics were outdated within a year and the animation looked wooden.

 

[mistyrain]

Wait, wait, ... 557 Mil.... Only Amazon's LOTR is 1 Billion in cost. So, either something else is happening under this deal or the amount must be staggering.

 

[terzaerian]

Wait, wait, ... 557 Mil.... Only Amazon's LOTR is 1 Billion in cost. So, either something else is happening under this deal or the amount must be staggering.

They're anticipating the difference in damage to the brand being done by Amazon. Bad corporate fanfic is expensive.

 

[lripplinger]

I'm excited to not watch the woke abomination that Amazon claims is "Lord of the Rings".

 

[mistyrain]

They're anticipating the difference in damage to the brand being done by Amazon. Bad corporate fanfic is expensive.

Hahahah, that was good

 

[bviktor]

Tripwire? Did not see that coming. Maybe they'll get their sh*t together and finally make a KF3 that's actually good, like KF2 was like 5 years ago?