EA's licensing deal with (now-Warner subsidiary) New Line for the Lord of the Ring games ended last year. Citing unnamed sources, Variety says Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment will likely not be licensing out the rights for other companies to make games based on the property, rather producing the games in-house. All revenue generated would then go to Warner, the owner of Lord of the Rings, and not an external publisher.
Since EA secured the Lord of the Rings movie game rights in 2001, Warner has be able to increase its games operations through acquisitions. WBIE now owns Snowblind Studios (Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance) and Monolith Productions (FEAR).
The games division is also home to TT Games, a studio quite adept at turning licensed properties into commercial hits--the studio created the games Lego Star Wars, Finding Nemo and Transformers: The Game, among others.
New Line has two Hobbit movies in the works with MGM; prime material for a videogame tie-in.
WBIE already has close ties to Turbine's LOTR Online game, having entered a distribution partnership for the expansion pack Mines of Moria.
Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment is not commenting on the piece.