Tag: the lord of the rings

Borderlands Maker Gearbox Reportedly Up for Sale by Embracer Group

Borderlands developer Gearbox is reportedly up for sale by parent company Embracer Group. As per Reuters, the Swedish conglomerate is looking to restructure following a $2 billion (about Rs. 16,586 crore) deal with Saudi Arabia government-funded Savvy Games Group that fell through, earlier this year. The fallout resulted in the former cutting down on spending, in addition to closing down studios and laying off its employees. Having been acquired merely two-and-a-half years ago, Gearbox is now the latest victim, with some alleged third-party publishers expressing interest in acquiring the developer. No names were mentioned, though they were described as “international gaming groups.”

Following the original Reuters report, Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier noted that it’s not confirmed whether Gearbox would be sold off, but Embracer is certainly looking to part ways with it. In an email sent to staff, Gearbox CCO Dan Hewitt said, “The base case is that Gearbox remains a part of Embracer. However, there are many options under consideration, including Gearbox’s transfer, taking Gearbox independent, and others. Ultimately, we’ll move ahead with whichever path is best for both Gearbox and Embracer.” Earlier this month, Embracer offloaded the Saints Row studio Volition, essentially shutting it down after 30 years in the game development space — possibly to do with the critical and commercial failure of its latest open-world reboot, as Embracer mentioned in its 2023 financial report.

Embracer has spent the last few years swiping game studios through a series of non-stop acquisitions and building an empire, bringing together coveted developers like Tomb Raider’s Crystal Dynamics, Remnant II’s THQ Nordic, Dead Island 2’s Deep Silver, franchising rights to The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, and more. This obviously cost a lot of money, which was initially covered by the aforementioned Savvy Games Group through a $1 billion investment. But in May, the latter backed out, leaving Embracer to deal with the debt.

Earlier this year, Embracer Group confirmed that The Lord of the Rings was getting an MMO adaptation developed by Amazon Games’ Orange County Studio — the same developers who previously worked on New World. The title is in the early stages of development and will feature stories from the LOTR and The Hobbit written material from author J.R.R. Tolkien. A bit before that, in February, the conglomerate confirmed that it had five video games based on the Middle-earth franchise in development, one of them being the critically panned The Lord of the Rings: Gollum game, whose failure resulted in Daedalic Entertainment closing down its development division.

Amidst all this restructuring drama, Crystal Dynamics put out an open letter assuring fans that the Embracer restructuring program will have no impact on the development of the upcoming Tomb Raider game. The parent company is also behind the long-gestating Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic remake, which switched studios from Aspyr Media to Saber Interactive, in August 2022, following the firing of two top employees.

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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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