Warner Bros aims to leverage Hobbit movie hype with new Lord of the Rings title
Guardians of Middle-earth is a new online arena game for XBLA and PSN
Perhaps capitalizing on the success of the rising massively online battle arena (MOBA) genre, Warner Bros will be working with Monolith Productions to bring a new title in The Lord of the Rings universe to market. Guardians of Middle-earth has been announced as a new MOBA title specifically for the Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network, to be launched in Fall of 2012.
"The MOBA genre is wildly popular with PC players and we are excited to bring it to consoles through the lore of Middle-earth," said Samantha Ryan, senior vice president, Production and Development at WBIE. "The heroes and villains of Middle-earth are crafted in a way that perfectly intersects with MOBA game features, allowing the development team to create guardians with deep skills and abilities for gamers to master."
The game will also have a tie-in to the highly anticipated silver screen launch of The Hobbit. Gamers can expect to see characters such as Gollum, Sauron, Gandalf and other names known throughout the Tolkien universe.