Embracer Group has said in wake of its restructuring plans that it aims to transform the Lord of the Rings into “one of the biggest gaming franchises in the world.”
Speaking in an open letter to its 17,000-strong staff, Embracer bigwig Lars Wingefors revealed that it aims to “put greater focus on internal IP and increase external funding of large-budget games.”
Meanwhile, speaking on a webcast following the announcement of its restructuring plans, Matthew Karch, interim chief operations officer, said the company will be putting big focus on The Lord of the Rings IP.
I have a high degree of confidence this entire process is going to easily translate into better product selection that’s more profitable and that gives us a greater opportunity for growth in the future, and that helps to leverage the IP we own within our organisation. We own Lord of the Rings, and we know we need to be exploiting Lord of the Rings in a very significant fashion and turn that into one of the biggest gaming franchises in the world. 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.
The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit rights were purchased by Embracer Group in August 2022, and last month the firm inked a deal with Amazon Games to create an MMO based on the much-loved fantasy epic.
[Source – IGN]