Embracer's The Lord Of The Rings Purchase Has Everyone Worried
At this point, big purchases are becoming commonplace in the gaming industry. Depending on how you look at it, it's both a great and terrible thing. On the one hand, the consumer wins with new content from a team that is passionate about expanding stories. In the case of purchases from Xbox and PlayStation, it meant new exclusives for players to enjoy.
On the other side is the bad, as the potential monopolisation of the industry will always benefit the highest bidder. This can lead to a gaming plutocracy that boxes out passionate indie developers. Regardless of how you feel about the practice, it's here to stay. The latest massive buyout has a lot of people concerned.
Embracer Owns All Of The Lord Of The Rings
Click to enlargeOkay, this is a big one. In a massive purchase, The Embracer Group has just snatched up Middle-earth Enterprises, which is the team that owns the rights to everything The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit.
That means that the film, video game, merchandising, and theme park rights for the biggest fantasy property on planet Earth now rests in the hands of a video game super-publisher. Great. At least we should get some more video games from J.R.R. Tolkein, but as we know, for every Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, we get a delayed Gollum.
Who knows what this means for the future of Amazon's upcoming The Rings of Power TV series, but as of right now, it looks like much more could be to come from Middle-Earth. This could be great news - but fans of the property have every right to be concerned.
This Is Scary News For Middle-Earth Fans
Though more The Lord of the Rings is something that can be exciting, there are a lot of nerves that Embracer could go nuts with it and completely oversaturate us with it. It's a colossal property to own, and likely one that will be the leading breadwinner for the company going forward. It wouldn't be surprising to see Embracer get a little greedy and go full Gollum. Across social media, there are already rumbles that the massive acquisition isn't for the best.
The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit are icons of fantasy, but that's mostly because of the untouchable legacy they've made - and it's likely that Embracer will be pulling them out of the glass cabinet and getting its greasy fingers all over it. Elsewhere, jokes that we'll get prequels for everyone from Legolas to Gimli won't be so funny when they're milked out of Embracer's inevitable cash cow. Whether we like it or not, we'll be seeing you back in Middle-earth very soon.
