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.

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!"