Embracer Group's Rampant Monopolisation Is Bigger Than Lord Of The Rings

thegamer.com:

Embracer Group has been a hungry little goblin recently, gobblin' up IP like there's no tomorrow. The investment group first made waves when it slurped up the likes of THQ, Saber Interactive, and Gearbox Software, although the recent acquisition of Tomb Raider, Deus Ex, Thief, and several other properties from Square Enix was what made a lot of people pay attention. Now, in one fell swoop, it gobbled up Limited Run Games, Tripwire Interactive, Singtrix, Tuxedo Games, Bitwave Games, Gioteck, and the IP for The Lord of the Rings (although not the literary rights themselves). This is a heck of a lot of things. It's too many things. As I argued when Microsoft bought Activision so soon after buying Bethesda, this is bad news.

I will say I'm not so sure about the hand wringing over The Lord of the Rings. True, I don't have the love and affection for Tolkien's works that some staff here do, but in the last two decades we have had six blockbuster movies, an upcoming series on capitalist oligarch Jeff Bezos’ streaming platform, and countless amount of board games, card games, t-shirts, action figures, posters, Christmas tat, underwear, and anything else you can slap Lord of the Rings on. It is not as if the current rights beholders have vigorously protected it from anything that might diminish the magic and wonder of the books. Gandalf has long been touted for MultiVersus, and seems only to have been pulled from the queue in the wake of this deal. It matters that Embracer Group is buying up everything. It does not matter that they happen to own the already heavily licensed trimmings to a book you enjoyed at school.

Related: The Rings Of Power Looks Just Like Every Other Fantasy Series

However, if that's what it takes people to