In a recent interview with GamesBeat, Embracer Freegroup CEO Lee Guinchard shed some light on the company’s plans with J.R.R. Tolkien’s works. Embracer Group plans to split into 3 public companies going forward – namely Coffee Stain & Friends, Asmodee Group, and Middle-earth Enterprises & Friends. Guinchard details his plans to build stronger relationships between different organizations to facilitate better development.
He also compares The Lord of the Rings franchise to the Marvel Cinematic Universe and draws parallels to the various kinds of experiences the vast lore enables developers to create.
“Year on year, you can add and test things with something like Call of Duty. But it’s not a story. It’s not a narrative. You keep the stuff that is working,” he says.
The interview also places focus on past failures like The Lord of the Rings: Gollum, and how the company plans to use the accrued learnings to build better experiences going forward. Furthermore, the interview also notes how the company is working on experimental tech like a concept AI character aging generator among other things, which definitely paints an intriguing picture for the future of the franchise.