Embracer Plans to Turn Lord of the Rings Into ‘One of the Biggest Game Franchises in the World’
Embracer said it should “exploit The Lord of the Rings in a very important way” by making it “one of the world’s greatest game series” .
The comments come this morning amid a costly restructuring of the giant games business that announced plans to halt projects in development, close 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 will cut spending across the board and reduce third-party publishing. , said it will “focus more on internal IP and increase external funding for games with a larger budget.”
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speak in webcast Following this morning’s restructuring announcement, Embracer executives have pulled out of games and even studios they deem not to be profitable enough, preferring to focus on projects that are expected to generate large profits. said the company plans to
Interim Chief Operating Officer Matthew Curch said during the webcast that the priority now is to focus on the Lord of the Rings video game at the expense of other projects.
“I believe that this entire process can easily translate into better product choices that are more profitable, with even greater opportunities for future growth, and help leverage the intellectual property you own within your organization. I’m sure,’ said Kerch.
“We own The Lord of the Rings and we recognize that we need to leverage The Lord of the Rings in a very important way and turn it into one of the world’s largest game franchises. That’s clearly what we’re trying to do.
“This is a much better use of resources than other projects that some of our teams are working on.”
This morning, Embracer CEO Lars Wingefors said the company will begin a “thorough review process” on investing in new game development projects. Wingefors warned that Embracer employees will “increase the focus on accountability” across the group and “ensure that performance meets or exceeds current targets”.
Embracer’s empire includes companies such as Middle-earth Enterprises, THQ Nordic, Plaion, Saber Interactive, Gearbox, Dark Horse Media, Coffee Stain, Crystal Dynamics, Eidos-Montreal, Asmodee, Amplifier, and Deep Silver. increase.
Embracer announces plans to purchase rights to The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit in August 2022 and explore opportunities to create new games, movies and more based on its well-known intellectual property bottom.
Last month, Embracer announced that the developers of New World have signed a deal with Amazon Games to create a new MMO based on The Lord of the Rings.
This massively multiplayer online game is completely separate from 2007’s Lord of the Rings Online and Amazon’s previously canceled Lord of the Rings MMO, which is currently in early development. , does not have an official title at the moment.
Amazon’s Lord of the Rings MMO seems to be out of danger, but there are plenty of Embracer games that could come under threat, including Aspyr’s troubled Knights of the Old Republic remake. be.
Wesley is IGN’s UK news editor. Find @wyp100 on Twitter. You can reach Wesley at: wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially wyp100@proton.me.
