During a recent earnings call where publisher Embracer announced a new restructuring plan that will see layoffs and the closure of some studios, the company has also stated that it plans to “exploit” the fact that it has the rights to The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit IPs.
“We own Lord of the Rings, and we know we need to be exploiting Lord of the Rings in a very significant fashion and turning that into one of the biggest gaming franchises in the world,” said Embracer’s interim executive Matthew Karch during the earnings call. “And that’s obviously something we’re going to be doing.
“That’s a much better use of resources than some of the other projects that some of our teams have been working on. Working together we have those opportunities and we’re super excited to see that working relatively quickly.”
While this is by no means a proper announcement of new upcoming video games based on The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, this does mean that Embracer seems to be looking to pivot many of its currently-owned studios into working on games based on the IP.
Embracer had acquired Middle-Earth Enterprises from the Saul Zaentz Company back in August 2022, giving the company the rights to quite a few parts of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit IPs.