7/31/01 - Latest News

Lord of Rings Gets Games Deal
Xoanon @ 11:10 am EST

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

Electronic Arts has signed a contract with New Line Cinema to develop a series of games based on The Lord of the Rings motion picture franchise, an Electronic Arts spokesman told The Hollywood Reporter. The games are in development for multiple platforms. New Line executive v.p. worldwide licensing and merchandising David Imhoff confirmed the Electronic Arts videogame license and said an official announcement will be made shortly.

Riot Entertainment has been awarded exclusive handheld wireless interactive game rights for the films and will debut the first graphical and text Lord of the Rings products this summer for personal data assistants and cell phones.

Electronic Arts will face competition at retail from Vivendi Universal Publishing's Sierra Studios, which will develop and release multiple console and PC games based on J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings literary works over the next eight years. The first 3D adventure title, The Fellowship of the Ring, will ship early next year for Microsoft's Xbox. Vivendi plans to release titles on all major gaming platforms in order to make the interactive versions of Tolkien's works available to as many gamers as possible, Vivendi Universal Games' CEO Hubert Joly told the Hollywood Reporter.

New Line will release The Two Towers at Christmas 2002 and The Return of the King at Christmas 2003, which gives a large window of marketing opportunities for any videogames based on the books or movies.