I do know licensing isn’t the sexiest subject, however in terms of sure properties—like Star Wars and main sports activities—it performs an excellent essential function in what video games we get to play and who makes them. Which is my approach of explaining why I’m writing in regards to the shock announcement that EA is making its first Lord of the Rings recreation since 2006.
For all of the shit individuals speak about EA in 2022, most of it for good cause, the writer had a run within the 00’s the place they launched quite a lot of glorious Lord of the Rings video games, just like the brawler film tie-ins, the cult Battle for Center Earth sequence of technique video games and Third Age, a Last Fantasy clone that may be a lot higher than most individuals ever gave it credit score for.
So there’s a bizarre sense of nostalgia hooked up to the announcement in the present day that, with the sequence’ rights now beneath new administration, EA is making a brand new Lord of the Rings recreation. That’s the excellent news. The unhealthy information is that it’s a free to play cellular recreation. The excellent news—pardon me, however it is a rollercoaster of an announcement—is that it’s primarily based on among the best sorts of free-to-play video games round.
Referred to as The Lord of the Rings: Heroes of Center-earth, right here’s the sport’s official description:
The Lord of the Rings: Heroes of Center-earth will function immersive storytelling, turn-based fight, deep assortment methods, and a large roster of characters from throughout the huge universe of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. Gamers battle by iconic tales from the world of Tolkien and take up the battle in opposition to the good evils of Center-earth.
Mainly, it’s going to be Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes—it’s even being developed by the identical group, Capital Video games—solely swapping out Jedi for Rohirrim and Hobbits. Which, you realize, shouldn’t be as cool an announcement as EA saying “hey, we’re making Battle for Center Earth III”, however for anybody who’s into GoH’s informal every day battles, this may be neat.
And perhaps Battle for Center Earth III can come subsequent.
