The Lord Of The Rings Film And Game Rights Being Auctioned Off

The movie and video game rights to a number of J.R.R. Tolkien creations, including The Lord Of The Rings and The Hobbit, are set to be auctioned off.

According to a new report from Variety, the current owner of Tolkien's works (Saul Zaentz Co.) has hired ACF Investment Bank to assist in the sale of its holdings, which include the rights to movies, games, merchandise, live events, and even theme parks. It's expected the sale will raise a minimum of $2 billion. Anyone fancy chipping in?

The report suggests that Amazon is widely expected to put in a winning offer, but nothing has been confirmed at this stage. Given that Amazon has already put up $500 million on its upcoming live-action LOTR series The Rings Of Power, it wouldn't be a huge surprise to see the company make a bid.

Assuming Amazon were to acquire the rights, that would also mean future LOTR games would be theirs to publish. Amazon Game Studios previously cancelled an MMO inspired by Tolkien's fantasy world as the result of a dispute with Tencent.

The next LOTR game set to release is The Lord Of The Rings: Gollum, a stealth-action game from Daedalic Entertainment and Nacon which is expected to arrive on PC and consoles at some point this year.

We'll be sure to update this story as soon as we learn more. For now, it's clear that the results of the auction will have a huge impact on the future of The Lord Of The Rings going forward.