Here’s what Embracer Group can (and can’t) do with Lord of the Rings

Image: New Line Cinema

With the purchase of Middle-earth Enterprises, the Embracer Group can put all kinds of new spin on the characters, stories, and places of Middle-earth. A video game company purchasing the various rights to the Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit universe means my dreams of a horse game are closer to reality. The gaming rights to Middle-earth were purchased by Embracer. How much of Middle-earth does theSwedish holding group own?

Does Embracer Group own The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit?

There is a short and long answer to this question. The publishing rights to The Silmarillion and other posthumous works are still in the hands of the Tolkien family. In the late 1990s, Warner Bros. obtained a license from Middle-earth Enterprises that allowed it to make feature-length productions. We got The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim animated feature because of that. Warner Bros. has to keep producing LotR media if they want the rights to return to their original owners.

So what Lord of the Rings properties does Embracer own?

Middle-earth Enterprises has exclusive worldwide rights to motion picture, merchandising, stage and other rights in certain literary works of J.R.R. If it was book omer and not Karl Urban omer, it would be fine for Embracer to make an omer's Horse Adventure game.

Asmodee, a French board, role-playing, and card game company that has published LotR-flavored card and board games for decades, was acquired by the Embracer Group in 2011.

The new precious will be exploited by Embracer. Other opportunities include exploring additional movies based on characters from the works of J.R.R. Tolkien. It has become a licensor. We could get anything from omer socks to, precious forbid, omer NFTs if Embracer started giving them away like a giant T-shirt cannon. There is an omer through line here.

It is not yet known what will happen to the current licensees, which make everything from replica jewelry and swords to cool Elven key caps.

There are a lot of companies that own the rights to this pair of texts. The lion's share of the Embracer Group has been taken over by them. It's our time.