Gaming site Gamespot has scored a nice Q&A session with WBIE’s president Martin Tremblay regarding Warners’ upoming ‘the Lord of the Rings: Aragorn’s Quest’. The game, scheduled for a release on the Wii, Nintendo DS, PlayStation 2, and PlayStation Portable this fall will be a “family-oriented third person action game”. Future games are however expected to be targetted towards a more adult audience.
Read the full interview below or over at Gamespot.
GameSpot: New Line Cinema and Warner Bros. are all part of the same parent company, so what took so long for WBIE to pick up the rights to make games based on The Lord of the Rings?
Martin Tremblay: Last year, New Line was combined with Warner Bros. theatrical directly and so it became a part of Warner Bros. for the theatrical licensing. Recently, The Saul Zaentz Company also had the option to partner with us on the literary rights. Thus, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, The Saul Zaentz Company and New Line Productions have established a long-term partnership regarding the literary and film rights to develop and publish games based on The Lord of the Rings trilogy. As WBIE has grown and more than doubled our lineup since 2008, it made sense to add an amazing intellectual property like The Lord of the Rings to the mix.
GS: What prompted you all to move in on the IP, why now?
MT: Over the next few years, dedicated fans of The Lord of the Rings will see Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment publish multiple games across many genres designed to appeal to a wide range of unique gamers, ranging from hard-core RPG fans to families who want to enjoy the lore of the property in different ways. All these future games will help us build a strong foundation of topnotch products to build both our business and a reputation for quality games.
GS: Will Warner Bros. be making a point of developing more games based on its film properties in-house?
MT: All the Warner Bros. divisions are open to working together to best leverage our properties. Warner Bros. is an exceptional storytelling company, and we have an abundance of great properties to work with. WBIE is also dedicated to finding high quality, sustainable new IP that fits our strategy for growth, so expect a balance of both established brands and original IP to be part of our business plan.
GS: How far, exactly, do WBIE’s rights extend with LOTR? How do the rights to Turbine’s MMOG Lord of the Rings Online fit into this equation?
MT: WBIE has secured the literary and film rights to develop and publish games based on The Lord of the Rings trilogy, which allows us to develop console and PC games across all platforms and genres. Turbine holds the MMOG rights at this time, and WBIE only handles the distribution for the game.
GS: Are you all approaching the LOTR IP as something you can exploit annually, or how often do you expect WBIE to release games based on the IP?
MT: WBIE is dedicated to quality product that fits the needs and desires of our gaming audience, so we don’t plan to exhaust game franchises. We do have plans to regularly release games based on The Lord of the Rings that meet the demands and desires of the gaming public and also help us achieve our business goals successfully.
GS: What’s been the biggest challenge in ramping up in-house game development efforts?
MT: There is a challenge in matching the best technology and game development teams with the right properties, so that we can make the best games. We have very strong internal teams and that is how we are looking to overcome this challenge. Monolith Productions, TT Games and Snowblind Studios are wholly owned by Warner Bros. Snowblind has the technology to make cutting edge RPG games, while TT Games has a great track record of creating outstanding family games that have wide appeal to all gamers. With Monolith, we utilize their renowned technological capabilities for making high-quality FPS and hardcore franchises.
GS: What do you feel is attractive about the LOTR IP from a publisher’s perspective?
MT: The Lord of the Rings is among the most well-crafted and revered stories of all time. The opportunity to create video game adventures based on this stellar world and offer high-quality video games for gamers and story fans will hopefully allow WBIE to continue increasing both the caliber of our products and our reach with consumers.
GS: What do you feel is attractive about the LOTR IP from a consumer’s perspective?
MT: For gamers, the opportunity to realistically interact with and take on the roles the of the most fabled characters of Middle-earth, control their experiences, progress against the evil Sauron and his multitude of enemy forces, and hopefully prevail as a result of passion and dedication in first-hand adventures is an amazing opportunity that beckons for them to engage!
GS: Given that so many LOTR games have already been made, how much potential do you think the franchise still has?
MT: The franchise is loaded with potential. The richness of The Lord of the Rings world is such that there are infinite possibilities for new gaming adventures. I am very excited about some of our upcoming games based on LOTR and when the timing is right I cannot wait to share our plans for games that will appeal more to hardcore gamers and RPG fans.
And now with WBIE’s new game The Lord of the Rings: Aragorn’s Quest, we are introducing the first game in the franchise crafted with an explicit goal of helping veteran fans of the story engage younger players in Tolkien’s world. Gamers take on the role of Aragorn and learn the great tale of the War of the Ring in way that is accessible for younger audiences unlike The Lord of the Rings games in the past. It is available for the first time for casual gaming fans with a version build specifically for the Wii. It will also be available on DS, PSP and PS2. However, The Lord of the Rings: Aragorn’s Quest is a game that can be enjoyed by all ages because of the storyline and the gameplay.
GS: How does WBIE plan to differentiate its use of the license from previous rights holders?
MT: Making The Lord of the Rings games for the core gamer as well as all ages of gamers is an innovation, and we will be announcing additional titles later that will showcase the innovations and differences. We are looking deeper into the literary world to explore things that have yet to be seen in games for fans of the franchise and gamers of all types.
GS: How much leeway do you have in creating new stories that fall outside the LOTR canon?
MT: WBIE works very closely with The Saul Zaentz Company and New Line to ensure the integrity and authenticity of gaming storylines based on The Lord of the Rings, and we are working to do things that have not yet been done with the license in the game space.
GS: LOTR isn’t exactly a dark fantasy universe, but it definitely has its fair share of death and destruction. Why go the family-friendly route with WBIE’s first effort with the franchise?
MT: A LOTR title was already released by EA in 2009 for the core audience, and WBIE now has The Lord of the Rings: Aragorn’s Quest for gamers of all ages, so we wanted to avoid cannibalization with our upcoming core titles. We will have hard-core games that we want to differentiate from other titles based on the The Lord of the Rings and we hope to surprise consumers and fans with those titles.
GS: Can we expect a Lego Lord of the Rings any time soon?
MT: We don’t have anything to discuss at this time. Lego Rock Band and Lego Battles are the games we have currently announced with the Lego franchise.
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Comments:
kylej13:
It's nice to hear that they will probably be putting Monolith to use and create a more hardcore game. Hopefully we will finally be able to really experience Middle-Earth battles like we expected from Conquest. I'm not saying that they have to do a Battlefront gameplay style to achieve this, but it's the idea of Conquest that we wanted. Battle for Middle Earth did a good job of this, but I want an action game that can do the same thing.
PS Does anyone know about the Lego games they mentioned? They sound interesting considering they aren't based on preexisting franchises.
blackkfox:
For all those who are disappointed by the prospect of a family oriented game, notice these parts of the Q&A:
MT: The franchise is loaded with potential. The richness of The Lord of the Rings world is such that there are infinite possibilities for new gaming adventures. I am very excited about some of our upcoming games based on LOTR, and when the timing is right, I cannot wait to share our plans for games that will appeal more to hardcore gamers and RPG fans.
MT: Over the next few years, dedicated fans of The Lord of the Rings will see Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment publish multiple games across many genres designed to appeal to a wide range of unique gamers, ranging from hardcore role-playing game fans to families who want to enjoy the lore of the property in different ways. All these future games will help us build a strong foundation of top-notch products to build both our business and a reputation for quality games.
Samus1111111:
well, I gues that that sounds good, but I think it would have been better if they released the more mature games first, but that's just me
blackkfox:
Samus1111111:
well, I just actually read the whole thing and I saw this:
Quote:
http://www.gamespot.com/news/6210387...dlines;title;1
And now with WBIE's new game The Lord of the Rings: Aragorn's Quest, we are introducing the first game in the franchise crafted with an explicit goal of helping veteran fans of the story engage younger players in Tolkien's world.
so I guess that this is a legitimate reason for releasing this one first, but I still would have prefered a more mature game first only because I have already been introduced to the series and want a good game :D
Freek:
I did notice the guy mentioned "RPG gamers" twice, so its fair to assume something is coming up in that area.
zach:
Well WB does own a studio known for its above average RPG's....
LOTR PO:
hopefully the next LOTR game after aragorns quest is an RPG game :D
d3an-extreme:
"I am very excited about some of our upcoming games based on LOTR and when the timing is right I cannot wait to share our plans for games that will appeal more to hardcore gamers and RPG fans"
Thats as good as official confirmation that a lotr rpg will be happening within the coming years. Every cloud has a silver lining it seems ;)
guilemaster:
Hey, i'm pretty good with this Q&A. It sounds like we've got loads of goodies comin our way. Also, their enthusiasm towards their new license will probably have them working pretty hard. We should show support to make sure they work their hardest to redeem LOTR after Conquest*spits*
witchkingshour:
Honestly is this what Lord of the rings is coming to? rather Let EA make the games if your gonna make the game for little kids.. Thanks but I'll stick to Battle for Middle earth.
zach:
I just cant wait til all the games coming soon. :)
LOTR PO:
hopefully it isn't to long to we get a new LOTR game, after Aragorns quest.
Khranashil:
WOW!!!! I just saw the trailer for the game! It looks really fun to play!!!
MoonShine:
yah, the first game is mainly a way to make money, they'll get younger kids interested and later they'll want to buy the other ones, a lotr rpg would be insane, something simialar to the elder scrolls, like oblivion kidna, be able to live in middle earth, explore it all, that would be pretty awesome. im all in, they need to reedeem what conquest was, it was an ok game, if you ignored the mages and scouts, because they have nothing to do with the books or the movies the only "mages" were gandalf, saruman and the other members of the white council, those two classes really screwed up the game for me
guilemaster:
THANK YOU! Finally, someone who disagrees about mages and scouts. Mainly mages, because the term "mage" never existed in Middle Earth. There were Wizards, and a really select group of them at that.
PS: an Oblivion style LOTR RPG would be pure bliss. ESPECIALLY if it had something like an online mode where you could play with friends. Form fellowships and stuff, kinda like in LOTRO, but with less human players. I'm getting so many ideas while i type this, you have no idea. I'm thinking Battle of Bruma with 8 player co op...nice.