The Lord of the Rings: the story of the $ 1 million video game thrown away

Jon Burton, founder of Traveller’s Tales, a studio known for the licensed video game series based on LEGO bricks, shared news that we all ignored: apparently the studio had in mind to create an ambitious action title dedicated to The Lord of the Rings. Not a LEGO-style action game, but a “serious” one with realistic graphics.

To be precise, the studio wanted to create a game based on the prequel “The Hobbit”, given that the cinematographic film was in development at the time (although at that precise moment the direction was entrusted to Guillermo del Toro and not yet to Peter Jackson). To try to sell their idea, the team created a playable demo, investing behind it an exorbitant amount, well over $ 1 million. For what was supposed to be a simple demonstration, it was an incredible expense.

Although the proposal was for a game on “The Hobbit”, the demo was made using some iconic scenes from the original Lord of the Rings saga. In support of this story, Burton published the entire demo on his Youtube channel, commenting it live. As you can see, in that presentation it was possible to take control of different characters and each of them would have a different gameplay: stealth for Frodo, magical battles for Gandalf and classic action for Aragorn. The graphics and motion capture are of a high standard, considering that it is a game conceived for the Xbox 360 and, despite the typical imperfections of an alpha concept, the quality is there and it shows.

Unfortunately, the owner of the video game rights of “The Lord of the Rings”, Warner Bros., did not approve the concept, since at the time they wanted a game that followed the events parallel to the films and not recreate them to perfection. Traveller’s Tales then returned to work on the LEGO games of “Lord of the Rings” and “The Hobbit”, unfortunately lightened by a million dollars spent on a refused project. Although it has not been confirmed by Burton, during the last generation of consoles, a game of the “Lord of the Rings” that followed a story parallel to the events of the film was actually released: it was “Lord of the Rings: War in the North”, developed by Snowblind Studios. Could that have been the game that WB had bet on, rejecting the idea of ​Traveller’s Tales?