Embracer Plans to Turn Lord of the Rings Into ‘One of the Biggest Game Franchises in the World’

Embracer has said it needs to be “exploiting Lord of the Rings in a very significant fashion” by turning it into “one of the biggest gaming franchises in the world”.

The comments come amid a costly restructure of the gargantuan game business, which this morning announced plans to cancel in-development projects, shut studios, and lay off an unspecified number of staff.

In an open letter to the company’s 17,000 staff, CEO Lars Wingefors said Embracer will decrease spending across the board, reduce third-party publishing, and “put greater focus on internal IP and increase external funding of large-budget games”.

“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.”

Speaking in a webcast following this morning’s restructure announcement, Embracer executives made it clear the company plans to ditch any games and even studios it decides won’t make enough profit, preferring to focus on projects it expects will bring in significant cash.

Focusing on The Lord of the Rings video games at the expense of other projects is now a priority, interim chief operations officer Matthew Karch said during the webcast.

“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,” Karch said.

“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.”

This morning, Embracer CEO Lars Wingefors said the company will now start a “thorough review process” for investments in new game development projects. Wingefors warned staff Embracer will have an “increased focus on accountability” across the group, “ensuring performance is in line with or exceeding current targets.”

Embracer’s empire includes Middle-earth Enterprises and other companies such as THQ Nordic, Plaion, Saber Interactive, Gearbox, Dark Horse Media, Coffee Stain, Crystal Dynamics, Eidos-Montreal, Asmodee, Amplifier, Deep Silver, and many others.

Embracer bought the rights to The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit in August 2022 and announced plans to explore opportunities to create new games, movies, and more based on the famous intellectual property.

Last month, Embracer announced it had signed a deal with Amazon Games for the developer of New World to create a new MMO based on The Lord of the Rings.

The massively multiplayer online game, which is completely separate from 2007’s The Lord of the Rings Online and from Amazon’s previously cancelled Lord of the Rings MMO, is currently in the early stages of development and as of yet has no official title.

It seems Amazon’s The Lord of the Rings MMO is safe from the chopping block, but there are a number of Embracer games that could be under threat, including Aspyr’s troubled Knights of the Old Republic remake.

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at [email protected] or confidentially at [email protected].