EA secures The Lord of the Rings film rights

Electronic Arts has confirmed with GameSpot that after months of negotiations that it has reached an agreement with New Line Cinema to develop games based on the upcoming The Lord of the Rings films. The company is not discussing any specifics, in terms of the planned platforms and game genres, but it did say that several related projects are currently under way. Official announcements will be made at a later date.

"Yes, Electronic Arts does have an agreement with New Line Cinema to produce a series of games based on the Lord of the Rings movie," Jeff Brown, spokesperson for Electronic Arts told GameSpot. "The games are in development right now and we will have more information for you later."

Rumors regarding Lord of the Rings games based on the upcoming films have been ongoing, ever since GameSpot's original report. Electronic Arts' agreement is separate from the agreement entered into by Tolkein Enterprises and Vivendi Universal Publishing to bring games based on the Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit novels to next-generation platforms.