Electronic Arts
Electronic Arts or EA for short is an American video games developing, publishing and distributing company, founded in 1982. Among its successes are The Sims, James Bond and various sports games, published by daughter company EA Sports.
History[edit]
Early efforts[edit]
Electronic Arts had it first fantasy game with The Bard's Tale in 1985, and was introduced to the world of Tolkien in 1990, when they held the UK distribution of Interplay's The Lord of the Rings, Vol. I.[1] In 1994 they published The Lord of the Rings, Vol. I for the SNES.[2][3]
Movie license[edit]
Electronic Arts purchased the interactive entertainment rights of The Lord of the Rings (film series) in 2002. That was after the video game The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring by Vivendi came out, leading several people to believe that was an Electronic Arts game too. EA had to compress both the first and the second film into one game, which became The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers in 2002. A year later, a game based on the third film was also made, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. When all movie-based games were published, an "alternative fellowship"- game, The Lord of the Rings: The Third Age, was made. Because it did not have rights to the book, it had to fill in the gameplay with movie-like aspects.
Book license[edit]
In 2005, a license to the books could be purchased from Saul Zaentz, which led the way to The Battle for Middle-earth, The Battle for Middle-earth II and an expansion, The Rise of the Witch-king. The popularity of these games made Electronic Arts to extend their license until 2008.[4] One more title was planned; at first, this would have been The Lord of the Rings: The White Council, but that has been cancelled.Its last game which was based on Tolkien's Middle-earth, The Lord of the Rings: Conquest was published in January 2009.
Recent years[edit]
In 2022, it was announced that Electronic Arts will co-operate with Middle-earth Enterprises in order to release a new mobile RPG mobile game named The Lord of the Rings: Heroes of Middle-earth at an unspecified time.[5]
Peter Jackson[edit]
Despite borrowing music, character design and character voices from The Lord of the Rings (film series), Electronic Arts did not leave room for Peter Jackson's input. This did not sit well with Jackson, who turned to Ubisoft for the film tie-in game of King Kong.[6]
See also[edit]
External links[edit]
References
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, Vol. I at Tolkien Games (retrieved 18 March 2011)
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, Vol. I at Tolkien Games (retrieved 18 March 2011)
- ↑ [http://www.mobygames.com/game/snes/jrr-tolkiens-lord-of-the-rings-volume-one J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, Vol. I (retrieved 18 March 2011)
- ↑ http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=13313
- ↑ "Electronic Arts Partners with Middle-earth Enterprises on the Development of Upcoming Mobile Game The Lord of the Rings: Heroes of Middle-earth™" dated 9 May 2022, EA (accessed 1 January 2023)
- ↑ http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/24/technology/24kong.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all
