Embracer is looking to turn The Lord of the Rings into a giant gaming franchise, the company announced amidst a massive restructuring on Tuesday.
What did Embracer say about The Lord of the Rings?
Speaking during an investor call on Tuesday, Embracer’s new interim executive Matthew Karch said that the company must begin “exploiting Lord of the Rings in a very significant fashion” in an effort to turn it into “one of the biggest gaming franchises in the world.” Karch said that the focus should be on The Lord of the Rings IP that they own instead of other projects, which might not perform as well.
“We own Lord of the Rings, and we know we need to be exploiting Lord of the Rings in a very significant fashion and turning that into one of the biggest gaming franchises in the world,” Karch said (via Eurogamer). “And 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. Working together we have those opportunities, and we’re super excited to see that working relatively quickly.”
Prior to this news, Embracer had already announced that it had about five games based on the iconic The Lord of the Rings franchise in the works. One of those was the recently released The Lord of the Rings: Gollum, which was critically panned upon its release.
Embracer’s comments come in the wake of the company also announcing that it would be going through a pretty significant restructuring. In an open letter to the company’s staff on Tuesday, CEO Lars Wingefors said that Embracer will be looking to decrease spending everywhere, and will reduce third-party publishing, and “put greater focus on internal IP and increase external funding of large-budget games”.
The restructuring also includes closing down some studios, canceling various projects, and laying off an unspecified number of staff at the company. Currently, no information on what studios or projects will be canceled is available. Embracer currently owns a litany of high-profile studios, including THQ Nordic, Saber Interactive, Gearbox, Middle-earth Enterprises, Dark Horse Media, Eidos-Montreal, Deep Silver, and more.
Embracer’s massive restructuring comes following the loss of a $2 billion partnership that occurred last month, which saw the company’s stock price plummet.
