This week, as part of its Q3 2022 fiscal year report, Embracer Group announced that five new games based on The Lord of the Rings franchise are being produced by partner studios. These games are expected to release by the end of March 2024.
Over the last quarter, Freemode, a company that belongs to the Embracer group, completed the acquisition of Middle-earth Enterprises, the company that owns the rights to The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit and other properties created by JRR Tolkien.
Such acquisition brought a lot of interest among internal and external partners, as it allows Embracer to produce adaptations of the franchises in different media formats. There are currently five Lord of the Rings-based games in production by external partners, which are expected to be released throughout the 2023/24 fiscal year.
There is also a film in production by an external partner. Freemode continues to do key recruiting across various parts of its business to strengthen the organization.
So far, we only know of two upcoming games based on The Lord of the Rings. The first is the story-driven action/adventure game Gollum by Daedalic Entertainment. Featuring the iconic character’s journey through Middle-earth, the game was originally announced in March 2019, with a slated release date of 2021. Daedalic later pushed the release back to 2022, which became September 2022, before further delay to 2023. Latest news suggests a North American Spring/Summer release window, with developers able to share more information at the upcoming Nacon Connect (scheduled for March 9th).
The other game is The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria, a survival title with co-op support for up to eight players, where players will embark on a dwarf-led adventure (set in the Fourth Age of Middle-earth) to explore and survive. in the iconic underground region. Developed by Californian studio Free Range Games, Return to Moria will be released later this year on PC via the Epic Games Store.
That means three unannounced Lord of the Rings games are in development. It is worth remembering that the statement by the Embracer Group may also include mobile games.
So, looking forward to the new Lord of the Rings games?
