https://techraptor.net/gaming/news/embracer-group-acquires-hobbit-lord-of-rings-ips-and-more

Honestly, I have no idea what to expect from this. They now hold the IP right to Lord of The Rings and the Hobbit for movies, games, and other merchandising efforts.

Still some work around to be done if they are thinking of re-releasing past games in the LOTR Catalog, but still wow.

Industry consolidation will continue until morale improves. Are they also going to make movies now?

I feel like the Embracer Group is a behemoth now. I like them because of how they deal with Coffee Stain Studios, the publisher and developer of Satisfactory. Sadly, the game is not available on GOG. :P

It's insane what Embracer Group is managing to acquire. One would think that Bezos could have acquired it, given even the making of the TV series, but instead he got played like a rookie.

Interesting. Still, re-release of the old EA LOTR games won't be possible unless EA also somehow gets involved. Or Embracer buys the publishing rights for those games off of EA too.

Also not sure if the acquisition includes the book license. If not, it's yet another block for a re-release of Battle for Middle Earth 2.

At this point and especially after what's been shown off from the Rings of Power so far these rights are definitely better off with anyone other than Bezos and Amazon.

Absolutely. The future of the franchise has definitely been improved by this. As for the past, I'm afraid EA won't let their LOTR games out of the limbo, unless Embracer shows them some serious cash too.

I recall similar statements about Lucas when Disney bought Star Wars.

I dont know much about Embracer Group but people said the same thing when Star Wars was sold to Disney (now they can make good movies unlike those prequels).

But Embracer has been on a buying spree and has been picking IPs on the cheap. First Edios and Deux Ex/Tomb Raider from Square Enix. Now Lord of the Rings. Do they have a blackmail list on CEOs or something?

Embracer have been very good at picking up IPs that the owner wants to get rid of, I'd suspect if you wanted to sell your game studio or similar they'd be one of the numbers everyone would be calling. They also seem to have a lot of funding, the Eidos purchase wasn't cheap and this one can't have been either. And in a similar vein... I wonder if it's a simple as Embracer bothering to ask if they wanted to sell, while Amazon didn't? I don't think Saul Zaentz was hawking the rights around or you'd have thought there would be more rumours of the sale prior to today, indeed rumours are a great way to attract any potential bidders and increase the price.

$250mn rights for, basically, a LotR appendix vs (rumoured) $750mn for everything looks like awful value for money for Amazon though, definitely.

Could have been much much MUCH worse, could have been Disney.
Embracer don't seem to be or at least don't come across as a bunch of backstabbing snakes who will promise to treat the canon/the established lore with the utmost respect only to do the exact opposite in the name of an agenda once the ink has dried.