The Lord of the Rings Embracer Group acquisition has fans nervous

gamesradar.com:

The rights to The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit have been acquired by tech conglomerate Embracer Group as part of a number of new deals, but the purchase has been met with a sense of wary distrust from fans.

In a press release (opens in new tab) early this morning, Embracer said that it had "entered into an agreement to acquire Middle-earth Enterprises," granting it potential access to "a vast intellectual property catalogue and worldwide rights to motion pictures, video games, board games," and much more. 

The price of the deal has not been confirmed, but some terms have been outlined. Middle-earth Enterprises "will continue to operate independently under the exisiting [...] leadership team," but it's clear that Embracer is hoping to expand the franchise - specifically, it mentions "opportunities includ[ing] exploring additional movies based on iconic characters such as Gandalf, Aragorn, Gollum, Galadriel, Eowyn and other characters from the literary works of J.R.R. Tolkein."

While that sounds as though it might be exciting news for fans of Middle-earth, the announcement has been met with a wave of uncertainty on social media.  Journalist Rebekah Valentine tweeted to comment on how "a giant holding company literally owning the rights to Tolkein's books is just like so profoundly antithetical to their spirit." Elsewhere, Game Developer's Bryant Francis discussed their concerns about the sheer number of franchises Embracer now owns alongside Lord of the Rings.

Embraced Group doesn’t seem to have done badly by the company’s bought so far but the Warner Bros. Discovery stuff has me on edge.August 18, 2022

Over on the Lord of the Rings subreddit, a similar sentiment arose. User munki17 (opens in new tab) suggested that