Warner confirms Lord Of The Rings licensing deal

Warner Bros Interactive Entertainment has secured The Lord Of The Rings licence, announcing a long-term partnership with both The Saul Zaentz Company and New Line Productions.

This agreement confirms Warner gained control of The Lord Of The Rings licence when EA’s licensing deal for the franchise expired. The rights fell back to New Line Cinema, the studio behind the films, which is currently owned by Warner.

Warner now has the right to develop and publish games based on both the literary and film editions of The Lord Of The Rings trilogy. The publisher plans to release multiple games across a variety of genres, such as the recently announced The Lord Of The Rings: Aragorn’s Quest.

The Lord Of The Rings franchse is world-renowned for its captivating adventures and we are creating new experiences in the game space designed to appeal to a wide array of consumer tastes from core to casual,” said Warner president Martin Tremblay.

The Saul Zaentz Compnay’s Fredrica Drotos added: We are looking forward to continuing The Lord Of The Rings’ amazing legacy with new videogames that capture and expand upon elements from the trilogy.”

Aragorn’s quest is due for release on Wii, DS, PS2 and PSP in Autumn 2009.