The Lord of the Rings has become Swedish – news Culture and entertainment

The Lord of the Rings name is one of the biggest in the entertainment industry. The games company Embracer now wants to explore the possibilities for its own films about several iconic characters. – We are talking about a price tag of several billion kroner that the Embracer Group paid for the company. It is estimated that the licenses from the company are worth around 19 billion, and perhaps more, says game critic at news, Rune Fjeld Olsen. Game reviewer Rune Fjeld Olsen in news. Photo: Siri Vålberg Saugstad / Siri Vålberg Saugstad The purchase price is still not public “due to commercial reasons”. – Among other things, they get ownership in a new series with the wizard Gandalf and a game about the creature Gollum from The Hobbit. – There are guaranteed to be several of the many game studios Embracer owns who could imagine making games based on The Lord of the Rings. Now the road to getting that license is short, he adds. Owned by Saudi Arabia Olsen points out that more and more large licenses in the media for entertainment are becoming part of the same, growing owners. The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power comes out on September 2. Photo: SF Norway – The big ones eat up the smaller ones. This happened with Sony acquiring Ubisoft. Fortunately, there are still many small companies left. And there are no signs that computer games are suffering from the huge acquisitions. Now Embracer Group owns the rights to 222 games in development. But the company is not only Swedish. In June, a Saudi Arabian fund spent NOK 10 billion to secure ownership of more than 8 percent of the company. – Many react strongly to this because they believe it is an attempt to whitewash Saudi Arabia in the West, says Olsen. The giant company for games in China, Tencent, has previously influenced a trailer from Call of Duty to show what many referred to as a cultural political stance, because they had ownership in the company. This is happening in the future Embracer understands that fans are afraid that Saudi Arabia or China will change movies, series or games in the future, but assures them that this will not happen. In addition, they write that they will buy the rights from two smaller gaming companies, Tripwire Studios and Tripwire Presents. Another of the announcements is that they are buying a company that they don’t want to name for commercial reasons. And if you’re hoping that the Middle-earth theme of the future Lord of the Rings will now have a more Nordic feel, you’ll be disappointed. – It would have been fun if the Lord of the Rings content was now moved to Scandinavia, but Embracer owns gaming companies in over 40 countries. Therefore, it will probably still be up to each individual studio that makes content for The Lord of the Rings which locations they choose. – There, New Zealand is probably still the strongest as the most iconic Lord of the Rings location of them all. The new TV series on Amazon Prime is also filmed there, adds Olsen.



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