Embracer Group acquired the rights to The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit: All Details

Embracer Group AB, one of Europe’s biggest gaming firms, has stepped up its acquisition spree after striking deals for six companies, including the intellectual property rights for The Lord of the Rings trilogy and The Hobbit. “Gaming is the best way to monetize long-term IP but not necessarily the most efficient way to create new IP,” Embracer Chief Executive Lars Wingfors said in an interview after the group’s second-quarter report.

The CEO says the acquisition of Middle-Earth Enterprises “enables many of the group’s companies to work on the IP we control for the long term” and will now join Embracer’s existing catalog of more than 800 owned and controlled IP.

Gaming companies like Embracer are increasingly focusing on IP as a way to generate mass sales of characters and stories that already attract large audiences. Embracer also owns the film rights to the IP of JRR Tolkien’s famous trilogy, giving them a financial interest in upcoming projects such as the Amazon series The Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power.

Karlstad-based Embracer, seen as a so-called serial acquirer due to its aggressive growth strategy, announced the creation of its 11th operating group Freemode, where several new acquisitions will be made. Freemode’s businesses are “more niche” and will focus on retro gaming, Wingforce said, pointing to newly acquired Limited Run Games – the “leading nerd retro-gaming publisher” in the market.

Shares of Embracer fell as much as 7 percent in early trade after the report’s release, but were down 1.8 percent at 2:30 pm Stockholm time/6pm IST. Wingforce attributes the sluggish quarter to the fact that the company had “no significant new releases” compared to the same period a year ago. However, the CEO says he has high expectations for the rest of 2022 and “a good number of titles coming up.”

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