Five Lord of the Rings games in the works at Embracer releasing by 2024
Arriving precisely when they mean to.
Five Lord of the Rings games are in the works at Embracer, planned for release in the financial year 2023/2024.
The news comes from the latest financial report from the publisher, which boasts a 128 percent increase in net sales across the company.
Little is known about these five Lord of the Rings games, although the report notes that the acquisition of Middle-Earth Enterprises has "generated a lot of interest among both internal and external partners for the Lord of the Rings IP, across different media formats".
One of these projects is likely The Lord of the Rings: Gollum game in production at Daedalic, which Embracer will receive royalties on.
Embracer acquired the rights to JRR Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit in August last year. This does not include the rights to the popular films.
In total, Embracer has 224 games in its pipeline, of which 31 are AAA games set for release before FY 27/28.
The company defines a AAA game as one with over 100 full-time developers at the peak development phase, notable or significant marketing budgets, and expected sales of two million units at a minimum.
In the shorter term, 94 games are in the pipeline for FY 23/24, four of which are AAA projects. The rest are a mixture of AA, A and indie games, major DLC, and port projects or new platforms.
The report lists some of its biggest announced projects, including the Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic remake, a forthcoming Tomb Raider game with Amazon Games, Hyper Light Breaker (the sequel to indie darling Hyper Light Drifter), Payday 3, System Shock Remake, and Lightyear Frontier (coming to Game Pass this year).
Knights of the Old Republic was said to be in "serious trouble" and "delayed indefinitely" last year, but this report lists it as on the way for PC and PS5, albeit without a release date.
Absent from the report are Perfect Dark, developed by Crystal Dynamics in collaboration with Xbox studio The Initiative, and a Deus Ex game in early development at Eidos Montreal. While neither are named, these are likely included in the total of five projects Embracer says it expects to launch from Crystal Dynamics and Eidos Montreal before the end of March 2028.
