Tag: jrr tolkien

Five Lord of the Rings Games Are Launching Within the Next 2 Years, Embracer Group Says

Five Lord of the Rings games are in development at Embracer Group. As per the company’s latest financial report, all those titles are planned to be released within the next two years — specifically, within the next financial year, which runs from April 1, 2023 to March 31, 2024. Back in August, Embracer Group purchased IP rights to The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit literary works by J.R.R. Tolkien, joining its vast catalogue of over 800 owned and controlled properties. While no exact titles were revealed in the briefing, we’re already aware of at least four of them to be in development for a while now.

The first is The Lord of the Rings: Gollum from Daedalic Entertainment, which recently received a new release window, alluding to a launch sometime before September, this year. Originally set for a 2021 release, the title suffered multiple delays, with the previous developer update stating that it needed more time to ensure an optimised performance at launch. While not explicitly said, the shake-up was possibly attributed to the negative fan reaction to its gameplay trailer, where many called out the game’s outdated graphics. Earlier this month, publisher Nacon announced an exclusive presentation for its upcoming titles, set for March 9, which also includes LOTR: Gollum. Hopefully, the game’s in a better state now.

“–this acquisition has generated a lot of interest among both internal and external partners for the Lord of the Rings IP, across different media formats. There are currently five games in production by external partners, to be released in the financial year 2023/24,” Embracer Group said in its financial report. Beyond Gollum, Free Range Games is known to be working on The Lord of the Rings: Moria, a survival crafting and base-building game centred around the Dwarves, as they set forth on an adventure to reclaim their lost home of Moria, located beneath the Misty Mountains. It is slated for release sometime this year on PC. A third untitled game based on the Middle-earth franchise is in development at Weta Workshop — the same digital effects company that has experience working on the original Peter Jackson movie trilogy. Private Division (OlliOlli World) is publishing it and is expected to launch in the fiscal year 2024.

The last one is possibly EA’s The Lord of the Rings: Heroes of Middle-earth, a mobile game focused on turn-based combat, a wide roster of characters from the fantasy universe, and “deep collection systems.” There aren’t many details about this game, but a press release notes “in-game purchases (including random items)” — raising suspicion as to whether it’s a gacha game, in the same vein as Genshin Impact. As mentioned before, there haven’t been any sightings of a fifth LOTR video game.

The report additionally notes that a movie, produced by an “external partner” is in development. Back in November, the company shut down Onoma (formerly Square Enix Montréal) merely three weeks after the rebranding. It was reported that Embracer wanted to shift focus to PC and console releases, with some of the staff being moved to Eidos-Montréal studio.

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The Lord of the Rings: Gollum Gets a New Launch Window, Will Release by September 2023

The Lord of the Rings: Gollum will not release until April, at the soonest. In its latest earnings report, co-publisher Nacon confirmed that the much-awaited action-adventure title is eyeing a launch in the first half of fiscal year 2023–24. This translates to a release window from April, stretching all the way into September 2023. Originally slated for a 2021 release, this marks the third delay for the game, with developer Daedalic Entertainment previously claiming to have merely pushed back the launch by “a few months.” This new development moves the timeline even further into 2023.

Daedalic’s most recent update was in September last year — a delay to ensure The Lord of the Rings: Gollum was in the best technical state upon release. While not explicitly mentioned, part of this shake-up probably had to do with the unsavoury fan response they received for the gameplay trailer — key points of critique being the outdated graphics and textures. As for the gameplay itself, players will be plunged into old Middle-earth, in a tightly-woven story that explores Gollum’s journey after he loses the One Ring to Bilbo Baggins. Drawing heavily from author J.R.R. Tolkien’s original material, the game essentially serves as a prelude to Peter Jackson’s The Fellowship of the Ring.

Much of the gameplay in The Lord of the Rings: Gollum is focused on stealth, which is a given since the titular character isn’t exactly the strongest in terms of physicality. That said, Gollum is extremely agile, which lets him crawl and climb onto surfaces with ease and without drawing much attention. Keeping with his split personality, his two sides, Gollum and Sméagol, become a mechanic during moments of conflict, where players must decide whether to take the timid approach or the cunningly evil route. “One mind, two egos — you decide!”, reads the description on Steam. At the time, the footage also highlighted a swimming mechanic with an oxygen counter. However, it was set in a first-person perspective, begging the question of whether one could switch camera perspectives at will. All other gameplay footage was present from the third-person perspective.

Beyond The Lord of the Rings: Gollum, there are other Middle-earth franchise video games in the works. First up is a fresh, unnamed title from Private Division and Weta Workshop — the latter is known for providing visual effects and prop work in the LoTR and the Hobbit movies. More details on the same will be revealed in time. Then there’s The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria, a survival crafting and base-building title, in which players take control of a company of Dwarves to reclaim the lost spoils from their homeland of Moria. It is eyeing a release sometime this year.

The Lord of the Rings: Gollum will be available to play across PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S/X, and Nintendo Switch.

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Elon Musk Goes on Wild Rant Against The Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power Amid Feud with Jeff Bezos

Elon Musk on Monday embarked on a wild rant against The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, in an atttempt to criticise the series that recently made its debut on Amazon Prime Video. The Tesla CEO, who is set to face off against Twitter next month over his bid to acquire the microblogging platform, is in a long-running feud with Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. Musk’s complaints about the show revolved around the show’s characters, and are misogynistic while conforming with traditional gender roles. 

“Tolkien is turning in his grave,” Musk dramatically tweeted on Monday, in his rant against The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, which premiered on September 2, exclusively on Prime Video. It is worth noting that his comments came after Amazon announced that the series drew 25 million global viewers, within the first 24 hours, making it the biggest premiere on the service.

“Almost every male character so far is a coward, a jerk or both. Only Galadriel is brave, smart and nice,” Musk continued in a second, mysogynistic tweet. Galadriel, a warrier elf, is played by Welsh actor Morfydd Clark.

It is also worth noting that Musk has a long-running feud with Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, whose Blue Origin spaceflight services firm competes with SpaceX. Musk has regularly attempted to troll or rant against Bezos’ and his firms.

Musk’s Twitter rant was criticised by author Neil Gaiman, who tweeted: “Elon Musk doesn’t come to me for advice on how to fail to buy Twitter, and I don’t go to him for film, TV or literature criticism.” 

The LOTR prequel series, which is set thousands of years before Peter Jackson’s films, aims to correct the lack of strong female figures in The Lord of the Rings universe.

Amazon has already invested over $1 billion (roughly Rs. 8,000 crore) for its five-season commitment.

New The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power episodes air every Friday at 9:30am IST on Amazon Prime Video in India until the series finale on October 14.



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The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power New Trailer Revealed at San Diego Comic-Con

Nomadic hobbits, bearded female dwarves and enslaved elves — Amazon finally lifted the lid on its highly anticipated Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power TV series at Comic-Con on Friday.

The enormously ambitious small-screen saga set in the world of J.R.R. Tolkien’s books has been in the works since Amazon Prime bought the rights for $250 million (roughly Rs. 1,996 crore) almost five years ago.

Fans, many of whom camped in line overnight at the world’s most famous pop culture gathering, were treated to a first look at footage, plus interviews with the creators and a 21-strong cast of hobbits, dwarves and elves in a packed presentation hosted by comedian and Tolkien-enthusiast Stephen Colbert.

“As fans and as viewers and lovers of Middle Earth and Tolkien, we didn’t want to do a side thing, or a spin off, or the origin story of something else,” said co-creator Patrick McKay.

“We wanted to find a huge Tolkienian mega epic. And Amazon were, wonderfully, crazy enough to say ‘yes, let’s do that.'”

Amazon is reportedly spending more than $1 billion to make five seasons — each running for 10 hours — the first of which launches on its streaming platform September 2, and which “reintroduces” Tolkien’s world of Middle Earth, said McKay.

Younger versions of elves Galadriel and Elrond — familiar characters to fans of Peter Jackson’s Oscar-winning Lord of the Rings trilogy — will be played by Morfydd Clark and Robert Aramayo.

But with the new TV show set 4,000 years before Jackson’s trilogy, in a fictional “Second Age” — a historical period sketched out in less detail by Tolkien’s writings — the creators had license to create many new characters.

“The field was wide open,” said co-creator J.D. Payne.

“Amazon bought the rights to basically 10,000 years of Middle Earth history and said, ‘Alright guys, let’s take all comers and see what you have to say.’

“We felt that the Second Age is freaking awesome. It’s Tolkien’s amazing, untold story, that is so iconic with the forging of the Rings of Power.”

Gorgeous, regal’ beard

The series is said to be a personal obsession of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, and represents the company’s biggest play yet in the so-called “streaming wars” with rivals including Netflix and Disney+.

Much of that cost went into lavish production values, evident to fans packed into the San Diego convention centre’s 6,000-capacity Hall H, where they were treated to five clips from the show, plus a new trailer.

Though plot details remain under wraps, sprawling and intricately detailed settings from the books, including the island kingdom of Numenor — projected onto a giant screen wrapping around-three quarters of the arena — drew audible gasps.

“We built an entire city with several blocks and an entire wharf — it’s crazy and enormous,” said McKay.

“We built as much as any group of humans could,” added executive producer Lindsey Weber.

One clip during the 90-minute presentation introduced a group of Harfoots, nomadic ancestors to the hobbits of “Lord of the Rings,” who live in travelling carts rather than holes.

Another showed a wealthy dwarf kingdom — complete with the saga’s first bearded female dwarves — and a third clip found a group of elves in chains, forced to work for a gang of evil orcs.

“We’re establishing the female dwarf for the first time,” Sophia Nomvete, who plays dwarf princess Disa, told AFP after the presentation.

“We have gone with a version, a gorgeous, regal, one-hair-at-a-time application, divine, detailed version of a beard for the female dwarf, and I know you’re gonna love it!”

‘Thrones’ and zombies Comic-Con is taking place in-person and at full 130,000-strong capacity again for the first time in three years, after going online due to the pandemic.

The Rings of Power is going head-to-head at the event with HBO’s Game of Thrones spin-off House of the Dragon, a rival fantasy series out next month, which gets its own Comic-Con presentation Saturday.

Elsewhere, post-apocalyptic zombie series The Walking Dead had its final Comic-Con presentation Friday, where it was confirmed that the record-breaking cable show’s final eight episodes will debut October 2.

But the undead franchise lives on, with fan favourite Andrew Lincoln telling ecstatic fans he will reprise his role as Rick Grimes for a limited series next year.

And Disney will wrap up the event’s major presentations Saturday evening with a presentation expected to feature its Marvel superheroes, including the eagerly awaited sequel “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.”

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