MICROGAMING Focus
Roger Raatgever, CEOMicrogaming.
“We are incredibly
pleasedwith our The Lord of the Rings
game. It's been a two year process to
secure the licence withWarner Bros. and there's been a
huge amount ofwork that has gone into
the game itself. I am very proud of the
teambehind this new title. The Lord of the Rings is a game that targets a new
demographic and
withWarner Bros. helpwe are
expanding into new markets. The new Cinematic Reels featurewe are
unveilingwith The Lord of the Rings shows that there
remains awhole host ofways to innovate and growthis
business. It's a great brand, a great game and tellingly,we
made the sensible choice.”
was borne very much from the licence itself. "Warner Bros. was extremely generous in providing full access to the movie. We could utilise pretty much anything from the nine hours of DVD footage from the three films, which presented us with a huge volume of stock footage, animation clips and movie sequences. Our creatives have been pulling apart the sequences in the film, with a ridiculous amount of research poured into The Lord of the Rings. With the Hobbit movie expected as a two-part release in 2011 and 2012, a resurgence in the appeal of the licence is expected to ensure the longevity of the brand over the next couple of years. As such, we are creating radically different games for movie two and three in the trilogy."
ISITSECRET? ISITSAFE? Microgaming is currently hard at work on the two remaining films in the trilogy, The Lord of the Rings; Two Towers™ and The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King™, with plans to utilise Cinematic Spins in each of the forthcoming releases but as part of very different game experiences. Available for download as well as web-based Flash, Microgaming has created the same visually rich game across both platforms to give players the greatest flexibility in terms of play options. The brand also extends offline, but here The Lord of the Rings in the land-based sector is a game released by WMS Gaming in June 2010 in the US. WMS holds the land-based rights to the trilogy, whereby Microgaming has obtained the online rights to the movies.
The enthusiasm for the The Lord of the Rings licence is tempered by each of the IOM team and it's made abundantly clear that Microgaming is hanging this licence upon a very strong game and that it's not a company to pursue licences for the sake of them. "We have been very successful with brands in the past," stated Jean-Luc. Tomb Raider has been a game of which we are very proud, with Tomb Raider I and II very different games. In fact, there were five years between the development of the two games in which we made sure not to cannibalise the licence. We have a long standing commitment to new content as illustrated by our 60 games per year output."
It's quite a prodigious output and one that marks out Microgaming with its partners who can work with the company to deliver a massively diverse library to their players. Mining a back catalogue of over 500 games, with each and every game enjoyed and played every day, means that titles such as The Lord of the Rings bring instant recognition and fan- appeal, but are by no means the focus of the company.
G3i I ISSUE 2 I PAGE 27
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