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GW extend licence on LoTR and The Hobbit
February 19, 2011 by warzan
So it's official, (if you ever doubted it would happen) GW have extended the licence on Lord of the Rings and taken up the licence on The Hobbit.
But what does this actually mean...
We'll I'm sure there are alot of nervous folks in GW including Mark Wells (Managing Director) who all remember too well what happened as a result of the Boom and Bust of the Lord of the Rings Trilogy.
And I would imagine that this time round things may well be a little different, if I had to place bets here's my predictions for 2012 (and beyond)...
1 ) The world ends in a cataclysmic polar shift caused by Nibiru (oops wrong blog!!)
2 ) GW will be planning for the Aftermath this time so expect big moves to move the new 'Hobbit' players into the other Systems (Fantasy/40K) as a matter of course. They want to make sure to sort the wheat from the chaff this time and get the other systems into the psyche of new players as much as possible (Presenting the entire Hobby).
3 ) Expect White Dwarf to be emblazoned with Hobbits, but no where near as much as last time. (Thank God!)
4 ) Expect amazing sculpts from Alan and Michael Perry - nuff said.
5 ) Be prepared to walk into your local GW store and be presented with new members of staff (they'll have to recruit) jumping into your line of sight asking what hobbit army you play while shoving boxes of hobbits into your arms, with the usual glee we have come to know and love. (they were trained in the school of ms word clippy - WARNING Not Safe For Work!)
6 ) Many of you will actually play LoTR and discover that is a great game.
7 ) Beasts of War will roll out big coverage dedicated to our little annoying fat hairy footed friends (thats Hobbits not GW Retail Staff by the way 😉 incase you wondered) because we're plastic whores and just love pimping the next big thing - and we missed the boat the last time and want any excuse to party!
8 ) GW will grow and the fruits of their labour will bring forth great wealth and employment and free minis for all who submit to her.
9 ) GW will forget the lessons of the past because buckets of cash are a great amnesiac, and they will run round like headless chickens when Warner Brothers run out of hobbit love, firing and restructuring and promising us all that they will never again neglect Warhammer 40K and Space Marines, we'll see a new (6th) edition of Warhammer 40K (probably with space hobbits, in power armour of course!) and a buch of codex releases for all the space marine chapters.
10 ) President Sarah Palin will disclose the Alien Presence and issue rifles to shoot at them (Meanwhile GW will try to tie up a licencing deal with the alien overlords - who disappointingly look like squats) Opps wrong blog again!!!!
11 ) We will continue our duality of adoration and disdain for our hobby, while convincing our wives and girlfriends to forget about paying rent and heating, as a new Landraider is the only path to happiness...
Let the fun Times Begin!!
Press release below...
WARNER BROS. CONSUMER PRODUCTS EXTENDS LICENSING AGREEMENT WITH GAMES WORKSHOP TO INCLUDE
"THE HOBBIT" AND "THE LORD OF THE RINGS"
BURBANK, Calif., Wednesday, February 9, 2011 - Warner Bros. Consumer Products (WBCP) announced today that it has extended its six-year licensing agreement with Games Workshop, enabling them exclusive, worldwide, all-language rights to produce tabletop games based on "The Hobbit" and "The Lord of the Rings" properties.
This extension allows Games Workshop, the largest tabletop fantasy and futuristic battle-games company, to expand on their arsenal of battle-games and model soldiers. Under the agreement, Games Workshop will continue to develop and increase their offerings from Middle-earth, the literary creation of J.R.R. Tolkien, allowing fans to realistically recreate action from the books and movies, based on one of the most thrilling stories ever told.
"Games Workshop has been a valuable partner of ours for a number of years and we look forward to continuing and expanding this successful relationship," said Karen McTier, Executive Vice President, Domestic Licensing and Worldwide Marketing, Warner Bros. Consumer Products. "Their products reflect the true spirit of 'The Lord of the Rings' franchise and, as anticipation builds for the release of 'The Hobbit,' the property's loyal fans will be excited for these richly inspired offerings."
"'The Lord of the Rings' is now firmly established as one of our core game systems, and the opportunity to expand it further with the upcoming film 'The Hobbit' is very exciting indeed, both for us and our hobbyists," said Mark Wells, CEO, Games Workshop. "The fantasy worlds of Middle-earth, as realized in the original works of J.R.R. Tolkien and in Peter Jackson's groundbreaking film adaptations, make wonderful backgrounds and stories which Games Workshop faithfully reproduces through its range of miniatures and battle-games."
Games Workshop products are available for purchase through Games Workshop Hobby Centres and independent retailers throughout the globe.
So all thats left to be said is...What Hobbit army do you play?!?!?!
BoW Warren
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My hope is that the hobbit gets GW through this sticky patch of poor sales.
Like you say Warren – they learn from the past and understand the sales curve.
Tried many times to read the books, but epic fail each time. [I read scifi mainly]. Love the films and my son knows pretty much every word of dialog.
But never felt the love enough to buy an army and play the game…
Not sure why, the world feels written in stone. The game/models look and feel like an ancients wargame…
I love the fact that the GW worlds are evolving and in a years time new units/heroes/characters can pop out of the woodwork and change how you play or the enemy you’re against.
Since the hobbit film became a definate and not a possibility I motivated myself to read the books (in order) start OFC w/ the hobbit and honestly they’re brilliant! Try again… =)
Oh nice! Price rises again, since they have to pay for the license?! Let us see what happens. Since I (like most of the other addicts here) have more 40k and FB minis at home to paint in two lifetimes even new movies won’t get me into LOTR. But I’m curious what they will do with the license since there is only one really big battle in the book as far as I remember and the rest is more skirmish in a tabletop sense. I hope the movies won’t get too childish since the hobbit is more a book for children. I wonder how they want to split such a short book into two movies (maybe lots of slomo).
Stinky hobbitses… Still, there may be good minis in there yet.
Wow, an entire article about Hobbits… and not a single mention of my height!
BoW Sam
Well, You’re shorter than Darrel, but that doesn’t mean you’re a midget… At least if you are it doesn’t show on the videos.
Sam
height?
you can’t be,,,,surely not…
May I have your autograph Mr Gamgee, please sir begging you kindly? 😛
Aah there we go. All is right with the world.
Nice post 🙂
My feeling is they should make the Hobbit a skirmish level game.
Whereas they could base it around the battle of the 5 armies I think a skirmish game would benefit them in a couple of ways.
it would provide a much needed “cheap” way into the GW hobby and systems.
it would provide relief from from the multitude of army based games they provide.
Yes, I know the original LOTR game is more skirmished based but I think this one could be very story & based. There are lots of bits from the Hobbit that would make nice games, from escaping the Goblins, to the incident with the Wrags, the fight for Esgaroth with Smaug.
Also the story is rich with characters from the individual Dwarfs to Bard, Beorn & Gandalf to name a few I think it would be a pity to bury these characters in an army rather than let them shine on their own.
The crazy thing is….GW already has a “battle of five armies” box set from 2005, based off the “epic scale” Warmaster rules. It’s hidden away under “specialist” games.
http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalog/productDetail.jsp?prodId=prod1100084
This set has like hundreds of minis…a 96 page rulebook and a plastic GW hill….Yes, I’ve been confused as hell about this for a while…why don’t they repackage this?
i’ve got that and its great quality and nice rules but really ‘epic’ scale isn’t what GW do and the majority of their customers (99.9%) don’t buy the epic stuff with the intenion of playing (or at all)…
yeah, LOTR startegy was a brilliant game that never really took off, hance war of the ring – and that sucks in comparison, in my opinion.
A skirmish-sized game with deep story-telling component and campaign development of the characters? Oh, no, wait … they don’t learn THAT much from their mistakes …
It would be interesting if they released something that was compatible with the WHFB rules (and scale) … a shorter version, perhaps, that would lure the fans into the hobby and let the FB players game in the license world …
What I think will happen, though, is they’ll try to push the tons of existing LotR product line for the duration of the movie-related hysteria by some shiny new rulebooks and new Hobbit-related releases.
While I think they’ll have an interesting opportunity to make their Hobby more accessible, it’ll be interesting to see what they make of it. But with the shareholders in the back, I imagine it’s quite hard to push innovative approaches at times like these, when people prefer to see some quick revenue, possibly through milking existing assets (i.e. the old line of LotR minis).
I really don’t think GW should be throwing more money down the Tolkien pit, but I’m not the MD so I guess maybe there’s something I don’t know that would make it worthwhile. onto the predictions:
1: I have no idea how the world ends, but I know what happens after, the only sound you hear is the default ring tone’s DEEDLE-DEEDLE DEEDLE-DEEDLE DEE!
2: It really depends how much life is left in 5th edition 40k I think, they’ll want to time it so that 6th comes out just as the hobbit bubble bursts to try and suck the kiddies that bought the hobbit stuff in.
3: White Dwarf last I heard was pretty high up on the list of things GW were looking to cut or change to stop losing money, so yeah I’d be expecting them to use the cheap advertising both to draw randoms in W.H.Smith to WD and the other systems in it and the established squarebase and 40k folks into the hobbit.
4: The sun will rise too :P.
5: A staffer in a GW tried to get me to buy LoTR stuff once. Once. >:D
6: It is a great game, its just a shame 40k and squarebase have to miss out of resources because of it,
7: Well you pretty much have to now don’t you? 😛
8: did you just use “GW” and “free” in the same sentance? I’m pretty sure that’s not allowed…
9: Yup.
10: Okay random question, when was the last time you had a CAT scan? 😉
11: Oooooh you have to pay for heating? I wondered why is was cold in here.
I’m really struck dumb by just how delusional these people are.
1) Karen McTeir calls this a “successful relationship”…This sets off a whole metric ass-load of alarm bells in my mind. Saying that “success” in a relationship is measured by how much money you can get out of a partner while leaving them with nothing, is like saying divorce lawyers promote marital success.
2) From the equally delusional mind of Mark Wells…”The Hobbit’ is very exciting indeed, both for us and our hobbyists.” Either Mr. Wells considers the majority of his Hobbyists to be the 35 hardcore guys on the continent, or he’s referring to the “excitement” that he and his team are going to be able to generate around this product. I.E. of they throw enough cash at this, in 6 months we are all going to want “Hobbit” merchandise so badly that we’ll all need a second mortgage…
Either way…if I ever get this desperate or out of touch with reality I’ve left instructions with close friends to just shoot me.
I’m excited about the movie as the lotr movies are epics based on my favourite books but I’ve never been tempted to buy the models. Don’t know why, just doesn’t have the same appeal to me as warhammer, or maybe it was death by white dwarf that done it, I can’t even read the lotr articles anymore.
Can’t wait to see the movie though!
yeah i’m with you on the plastic minis, the moria fellowship really sucked… but the metal guys are cool and the rules (SKIRMISH!!) are great – better than 40k IMHO.
The articles though – 100% agree that their monotonouse and not engaging in any way, 20 variations on ‘how to use gandalf in your games’ anyone???
If anything I hope that they do something with the Battle of the Five Armies weather it be a start box game or a booket.
opps????
it seems every one seems the hobbit is about hobbits, but its about dwarfs and bilbo baggins is the only main hobbit in the story. so if you remember GW have been relesing lots of dwarf minis for lord of the rings range. but i hope they do come out with some good stuff for it. i love the story
nope, its about hobbits.
and hobbits when they are not in battle love nothing more than drinking beer (in pints ofcourse) and jumping wildly on another hobbits bed with a group of open minded hobbits 🙂
I wonder how much of Clerks 2 I could quote here before being seriously scalded.
Mmmmmm, cake.
it’s called THE Hobbit, even the title makes khrystan’s statement true and yes, I have read the book so I know what it is about
Well, in response to number 5 asking what hobbit army you play…
…I’d reply with the same answer i give whenever they ask me ( for the bazillionth time ) what army do I collect…
… SQUATS!
Re Lucas, Skirmish game
How about a box set that allows the Dungeon aspect of the story to be played, but with enough minis for a skirmish game too.
Or is that just nicking the concept of such a set from Mantic? lol
I got into this wretched gaming malarky through the LoTR partworks, curse you GW!
Still like the game and the models are excellent sculpts. imho have yet to see better Dwarves. Then again if it is the Perry’s, from what I’ve seen of their work, the quality is no surprise.
I’m all for GW making new games, the more the merrier I say.
The actual hobbit films themselves have been plagued with years of disputes, lawsuits, industrial squabbles and the departure of Del Toto who was due to direct the film. All this before they’ve even started filming the thing. A lot of people, including many in the million dollar film industry see these films as a little earner $$$ hence the squabbles.
I loved the Lord of the Rings. The battle of Helms Deep was awesome weren’t it, and I loved the Mines of Moria bit in the first one, it was like watching ‘Hero Quest’ for me. And who didn’t cry at the end of the first one when ‘Sharpie’ died haven’t been shot to bits by arrows. ‘Still Sharpe’. The idea to do the Hobbit as a film I recall came not long after the ‘Return of the King’ was released. First it was going to be a film, then an animated TV series then it was going to be something else. The conception and production of these films seems to be as dramatic as what you get in Middle Earth.
Just seems to be a lot riding on these new films, not just for GW but for the film industry, many people in New Zealand and Peter Jackson. Peter Jackson is a superb director who has made quite excellent films (in addition to the Lord of Rings ones), I wish him nothing but the very best of luck. Fingers crossed.
Must admit I didn’t cry but it was a painful read and felt as sad watching the film as when I read the book all those years ago 🙁
FWIW at the end of the Fellowship, when Gandalf was dragged off the bridge and fell, there were a lot of very loud gasps and a fair few “Noooo’s” lol
Fantastic to feel the audience swept along like that.
In terms of models etc from GW, I think they need to be cautious. Yes, release a new game and models from the three armies but I wouldn’t gamble the house on it; Not yet anyway….
wooohooo can’t wait… sorry there is gonna be soem coverage liek the old style weeks for new releases not soem pansy weekend with 3 unboxings and 5 vids liekt he Dark Eldar got?
Well from what Warren said in the live painting session/chat they did the other week, Dark Eldar only got a weekend because the guys’ real life schedules all went runny that week and they hope to get more coverage for releases in future.
The BoW guys have real lives?
Are you sure?
Thought they all did stuff together in the BoW house and all slept in the same bed like Eric and Ernie?
Dude, big respect for mentioning Eric and Ernie.
well, I am not complaining about that. With LotR game I manage to gather a lot of wh40k players to my group. My wife started looking at the miniature games and my time painting and gaming differently because she loves JRR mithology and enjoyed the miniatures I bought and painted for her 🙂 and my 5yo son started smashing and gaming LotR minis before he gets his SM army.
Thinking as a gamer/painter, the more the merrier it won’t bother me at all all the coverage on the minis and game. 🙂
Every time I hear war Gamers cry and moan about Games Workshop and there efforts in creating a LOTR war game…
I get this vision man, of how the whole thing should of ended. Oh Man… there is is again- somebody please make it stop (click link below to tap into the vision)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yqVD0swvWU&feature=related
Over and over again you guys gotta quit pissing and moaning this recurring vision is really freaking me out man 🙂
I was kinda hoping the bird would just drop the hobbit.
I really enjoyed reading the Hobbit and LotR. I loved the movies so far… I HATE that they waste valuable ink and pages in my WD ” the same WD that costs 4 times as much as my guns and ammo” Thanks to GW I could care less about the hobbit movie. Wait I take that back I hope they never make a hobbit movie so I don’t lose more pages of WD to LOOK LOOK AT THIS NEW GARBAGE with full page adds inbetween my 40k’s 2 pages and a fold out inbetween the 3 pages of wfb articles.