Tolkien Games Impressions
“While Electronic Arts may have what appears to be the better deal with their license to make video and PC games based on Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings film trilogy, Vivendi Universal Games has the rights to the actual books by J.R.R. Tolkien which allows them a lot more freedom to create game titles based on the classic fantasy tales.” - homelanfed.com
An interesting look at the Tolkien games coming out from Vivendi. Aaah.. the bizarre old world of licensing deals. Would Vivendi have even bothered to cash in on Tolkien if not for Peter Jackson’s films?
posted by bruce · at 7:21 am · filed under News
Well, actually, the licence to make games based on the books has been the centre of a legal saga started way before the movies were even conceived. If you remember, Sierra originally held the licence but was stripped of it in court after canning their "Middle Earth" MMORPG team and attempting to turn the game into something the Tolkien estate couldn’t live with. At least that is what seemed to be the issue, it was hard to tell with all the legaleeze. Tolkien fans breathed a sigh of relief when it happend because Sierra would have turned the game into a Hanna Barbara cartoon. The project has now been given to Turbine Entertainment, who are responsible for Asheron’s Call 1 & 2, so the end result may not be much better. We’ll see.
The Tolkien licence was always hot property. The films just plastered it (or rather Jackson’s version of it) all over popular culture.