Publishers Battle for Middle Earth: New EA RPG Enters Melee
The Third Age is latest Tolkien cash-in.
As the Lord of the Rings movies made progressive quantum leaps in the realms of cinematic possibilities, the games industry went into overdrive, with offerings from Vivendi and Electronic Arts touting the merits of the books and films respectively.
Although EA's marketing might was always bound to outdo the French publisher, VU's secret weapon was its RPG, a trump card that EA has now usurped with the announcement of The Lord of the Rings: The Third Age for PlayStation 2, Xbox, Game Boy Advance and GameCube.
Scheduled to launch this autumn, The Third Age is an RPG starring an as-yet unnamed original character chronicling Peter Jackson's acclaimed celluloid re-work of Tolkien’s trilogy.
The action will be turn-based and new playable characters will be added, Final Fantasy-style, throughout proceedings, and it's all set against glorious movie FMV sequences and locations taken from the films.
This move is an interesting one for EA to have made and shows the guile the outfit possesses. Of course, had there been no other RPG offering, Electronic Arts would have been happy to churn out more of the generic action games it has become (in)famous for applying to many of its key licensed games. This way, EA let's Vivendi build the RPG franchise, then steps in at the last minute, takes every inch of key retail space for itself, and runs a massive promotional campaign.
EA. Simple, yet brilliant.
As to whether this is healthy for the longevity of the industry remains to be seen, though EA's shareholders won't be complaining, that is assured.
Although EA's marketing might was always bound to outdo the French publisher, VU's secret weapon was its RPG, a trump card that EA has now usurped with the announcement of The Lord of the Rings: The Third Age for PlayStation 2, Xbox, Game Boy Advance and GameCube.
Scheduled to launch this autumn, The Third Age is an RPG starring an as-yet unnamed original character chronicling Peter Jackson's acclaimed celluloid re-work of Tolkien’s trilogy.
The action will be turn-based and new playable characters will be added, Final Fantasy-style, throughout proceedings, and it's all set against glorious movie FMV sequences and locations taken from the films.
This move is an interesting one for EA to have made and shows the guile the outfit possesses. Of course, had there been no other RPG offering, Electronic Arts would have been happy to churn out more of the generic action games it has become (in)famous for applying to many of its key licensed games. This way, EA let's Vivendi build the RPG franchise, then steps in at the last minute, takes every inch of key retail space for itself, and runs a massive promotional campaign.
EA. Simple, yet brilliant.
As to whether this is healthy for the longevity of the industry remains to be seen, though EA's shareholders won't be complaining, that is assured.
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Comments
sue_raas 28 Apr 2004 15:45
1/1
Christ on a bike, is there nothing safe from EA's grasp? How long beefore we see the 'EA Tolkien' brand? EA - Everything, Always.