EA And New Line Extend Lord Of The Rings Deal News

Electronic Arts and New Line Cinema have today confirmed an extension to their deal to produce videogame based on the Lord of the Rings feature films, which will result in a new unannounced title based in the world of Tokien.

"The Lord of the Rings is an incredible canvas to create epic games," said Frank Gibeau, EA's executive vice president and general manager of North American publishing. "We look forward to our next project with New Line Cinema and Tolkien Enterprises scheduled to ship in 2008."

"We have a long history of making great games with EA and are thrilled to extend our longstanding relationship," said David Imhoff, New Line's senior executive vice president of worldwide licensing and merchandising. "We look forward to working closely with EA to create even more compelling Lord of the Rings adventures in the future."

EA had been working on an open-world RPG set in Middle-Earth called The White Council, but it's unclear as to whether this new title will be a resurrection of the stalled next-gen development or something entirely new. The fact that the deal has only been extended by 12 months is something of a significant point, and does suggest that the title may be the last Lord of the Rings title from EA...

The adventures of Frodo Baggins and the rest of the Fellowship continue to be prove ripe for videogame development as Codemasters Online Gaming and Turbine's MMO Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar readies itself for release at the end of April.