E3: Warner to release games based on Rings trilogy
First title from publishers Headstrong, TT Fusion to be launched this fall
By Danny King -- Video Business, 6/2/2009
JUNE 2 | PHYSICAL: Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment is looking to capitalize on a growing gaming market by releasing videogames based on The Lord of the Rings film trilogy.The Time Warner Inc. unit this fall will release The Lord of the Rings: Aragorn's Quest, part of an agreement with the Saul Zaentz Co., which holds the merchandising rights to all of J.R.R. Tolkien's literary works, Warner Bros. Interactive said in a statement late last week. Kuju Entertainment's Headstrong Games will develop the Rings games for Nintendo's Wii and DS consoles, while U.K.-based TT Fusion will develop the titles for Sony's PlayStation 3.
Warner Bros. Interactive is looking to capitalize on a videogaming industry that had been expanding over the last couple years as sales of other forms of packaged media shrunk until a dearth of new titles caused videogame sales to plunge in April. Videogame industry sales rose 19% last year to $21.3 billion, with videogame software sales surging 26% from a year earlier, according to NPD Group.
Aragorn's Quest "is the first of many different types of games we will be developing with the film and literary rights," Martin Tremblay, president of Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, said in the statement.
Additionally, Warner Bros. is banking on the continued popularity of the Rings trilogy, which grossed more than $2.9 billion in worldwide box-office sales combined between 2001 and 2003, according to IMDb.com. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King is the second top-grossing film of all time, after Titanic.
Warner Bros. Interactive is part of a Time Warner Inc. filmed-entertainment division whose first-quarter sales fell 7% from a year earlier on both lower DVD sales and theatrical revenue.
