Embracer Group’s former Interim Chief Operations Officer Matthew Karch is seemingly back tracking on previous comments he made about the company exploiting The Lord of the Rings, which it acquired in August 2022.
A screenshot from The Lord of the Rings: Gollum (2023), Daedalic Entertainment
In June 2023, following the announcement of a significant restructuring program at Embracer Group, Karch shared during the company’s press conference, “I’ve been with the company for many years and I’ve seen vast ways in which I think we can improve that I consider to be low-hanging fruit. I’m excited to get these plans implemented and to show some really rapid and visible result.”
“And for that purpose we are initiating multiple actions that are going to strengthen our cash flow generation and that will leverage our portfolio of IP, which I consider to be some of the best in the world to create a stronger company,” he said.
A screenshot from The Lord of the Rings Online (2012), Standing Stone Games
Later, during the Q&A portion, he was asked about the potential growth opportunities as the company restructured. He answered in part, “With some more centralization, and I’m obviously not implying we are moving from one model to another, but we are going to incorporate elements of consolidation and centralization into certain aspect of our business.”
“We are going to have a much better picture of the teams that are coming available. And we are going to have much better data to support product selection and to create product which is going to ultimately achieve better results than some of our past products have. And so I have a high degree of confidence that this entire process is going to easily translate into better product selection that is more profitable and that gives us a better opportunity for growth in the future.”
A screenshot from The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria (2023), North Beach Games
He then talked about The Lord of the Rings, “And that helps to leverage the IP that we own within our organization. I mean we own The Lord of the Rings. We know we need to be exploiting Lord of the Rings in a very significant fashion and turning it into one of the biggest gaming franchises in the world. And that’s obviously something that we are going to be doing. That’s a much better use of resources than some of the other projects that some of our teams have been working on.”
“Working together we have those opportunities and we are super excited to put that to work relatively quickly,” he concluded.
A screenshot from The Lord of the Rings: Gollum (2023), Daedalic Entertainment
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Karch has since left Embracer Group and purchased Saber Interactive from them through Beacon Interactive for $247 million. He spoke about Embracer Group’s plans for The Lord of the Rings in an interview with IGN.
He said, “I was walking around GDC getting congratulated by people and having people telling me that Embracer is the evil empire. Embracer is as small-town and homegrown of a large organization as you’re ever going to see.”
“It’s not a company which wants to spit out a thousand Lord of the Rings games regardless of whether or not those Lord of the Rings games are going to hurt the license,” he stated. “That’s not the way Embracer operates. It’s not the way Lars operates. He loves IP. He loves games. He loves game developers.”
“He got to start in comics. God knows how long ago, and he’s just a good human being, and he cares about his people,” Karch concluded.
A screenshot from The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria (2023), North Beach Games
Of note, EA announced in February that it would be shuttering its mobile game The Lord of the Rings: Heroes of Middle-earth on May 24, 2024.
In a blog post, the company shared, “It is with a heavy heart that we inform you that we have made the difficult decision to sunset The Lord of the Rings: Heroes of Middle-earth on May 24, 2024. … These decisions never come easy, and there are a myriad of factors that contribute to this outcome, but what has become clear is that we cannot sustain the level of quality we want to deliver and you expect. Players who already have the game installed on their devices can continue to play and use any existing in-game currency until May 24, 2024. After May 24, 2024 the game will no longer be accessible to all players.”
A screenshot from The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria (2023), North Beach Games
What do you make of Karch’s new comments that Embracer Group does not plan to exploit the Lord of the Rings regardless of whether or not it hurts the license?
