First Looks at LotR - Return of the King

I was perusing Gamers.com this morning and saw that they've posted a couple previews of the next Lord of the Rings game, Return of the King. There's a preview of the console version, as well as a look at the PC version. The producer of the games comments that: "The two key areas we wanted to make sure we nailed this time around were the addition of co-op and better interaction with the levels... If last year's game was Golden Axe meets Lord of the Rings, then this year's game is Gauntlet meets Lord of the Rings."

Comments

Co-Branding?

[Lord_Dweomer]

What I think would be an excellent branding idea is to sell the various movies with their game counterparts in a bundle. So when RoTK comes out in theaters, sell it standalone, but when the DVD comes out, offer a package deal at a slightly discounted price. I'm dumbfounded they haven't done this yet, especially in an age where synergistic marketing efforts are the next big thing.

Re:Co-Branding?

[fireduck]

i seem to recall some synergy in games recently. maybe tomb raider or matrix game had a free ticket for the movie offer? google turns up a now defunct link for a free on-pack movie ticket if you buy the finding nemo game. so some of this synergy is there. actually searching "free movie ticket" + name of game in google turns up lots of deals, one for pirates of the caribbean as well.

but, then again, you don't want too much synergy or you end up with the "new tomb raider game brought our movie down" logic.

Re:Co-Branding?

[L7_]

There is no way for companies to do this.

Universal Studios owns the rights to make movies of the LotR works. (I think its Universal, but the actual company is irrelevant).

The software publisher that owns the rights to distriubute video games (they pay a studio to design/code it for them) based on the LotR series is not Universal Studios, nor does it have any connection with Universal.

What you're talking about won't happen unless some of the media/movie companies start to buy out video game publishers, or video game publishers start to buy out movie studios. They are separate licensing agreements. The game publisher would have to make a deal witht he movie studio (and probably with the people they bought the rights from) to do a joint distribution of game and dvd.

So, you will see a DVD and movie tickets promotion, but you will never see game+movie promotions, they are separate entities.

P.S. Don't ask me why books from a publisher often have screencaptures from movies on thier cover after the movie is released. :|

Re:Co-Branding?

[ArmorFiend]

Especially since they can force you to buy things you don't want:

E.T. 20th anniversarry edition, with a free copy of E.T. The Suck-ass-Atari-Game!

Sells several million copies coz people just want the DVD.
Atari: "see, even 20 years later we still gots the market penetration, yo!

Re:Co-Branding?

[Lord_Dweomer]

"What you're talking about won't happen unless some of the media/movie companies start to buy out video game publishers, or video game publishers start to buy out movie studios. They are separate licensing agreements. The game publisher would have to make a deal witht he movie studio (and probably with the people they bought the rights from) to do a joint distribution of game and dvd."

And why couldn't they do this exactly? This kind of stuff happens all the time. They both want to sell their product, and this would be a great deal that should be fairly easy to negotiate in Hollywood terms. Just because products are owned by two seperate companies and have different licensing agreements doesn't mean they can't ever bundle a product together. You would be correct if there were a specific clause in the licensing agreement that forbade them from doing this, but other than that you are completely wrong.

Re:Co-Branding?

[Daetrin]

The Scorpion King game last year did exactly that. The game was released at the same time as the DVD, and if you bought them both you got a mail in rebate or something similar. The game also had a trailer for the DVD, and i believe the DVD had one for the game as well, though i'm not sure on that last bit.

They're probably less likely to do this with big titles though, since they figure those will sell on their own even without the incentive. There will certainly be pleanty of cross-over advertising though.

How about creating something unique?

[NetDanzr]

If last year's game was Golden Axe meets Lord of the Rings, then this year's game is Gauntlet meets Lord of the Rings.

If I want Golden Axe, I play Golden Axe. If I want Gauntlet, I play Gauntlet. In neither case I feel like I need to spend an additional $50 only to play a game I already have, with the LotR logo on the box. What happened to originality? How about at least pretending that the games are unique?

Co-op

[Sylver Dragon]

At least it seems like they have fixed the co-op bug that was in the Two Towers game. If ever there was a title that screamed for a co-op mode, LotR is it. I mean, come on, its the fellowship of the ring, and almost never was anyone alone. Samwise rescuing Frodo, and looking for him again in Mt. Doom was about it, but other than that there were usually several of the heros traveling and fighting together. Heck, consider the battle at Helm's Deep, Legolas and Gimli were keeping score! Ok, so this didn't get played up as much in the movie, but it still made a bit of a showing.

console version

[icespeedskater]

A console version? I thought even hoping for a Linux version was in vain, but a console version? No graphics, only a text interface? That's impressive!

Oh no, not Gauntlet!

[Torgo's Pizza]

Does this mean that when I play the game, I'll hear constantly "Green Legolas needs food badly!"

Nifty

[JolieBlanc]

The Two Towers was one of the finer action games I played last year; difficult enough that I had to work at it for a while, but quite entertaining. Personally, I really liked the way they integrated the story of the movies into the game via flashbacks and cut-scenes, and some of the transitions between rendered motion and film was really beautifully done. Not to mention the voice talent was extremely good. And the fact that your prize for completing levels was bonus footage and documentaries from the movie...Count me in for Return of the King. :)