Making Lord of the rings based game, licence required?

News & General Discussion
1

Does anyone have information if there is licencing needed for any type of game on Lord of the rings game?
I am asking this becouse i have saw recently one middle sized LOTR game, which i belive didnt purchase licence.
Also is licence in New line cinema, EA or Warner Bros?

Is there any difference if you make Lord of the rings game without main characters from Lord of the rings triology?

This is maybe a little offtopic, i just didnt wanted to open new theme, but does Unity IOS licence include releasing game for Ipad 12 too?

2

of course you need a license, mmm don’t have any info on how to or what, but I’m guessing its not cheap.

3

JRR Tolkien died in 73, so copyright lasts till 2043 IIRC.

4

Something like LOTR will probably be copyrighted forever. For example, a lot of Disney stuff should have gone into public domain by now, but they manage to avoid it.

Just make your own stuff. It’s more rewarding and you don’t have to worry about legal issues.

–Eric

5

And yes, the iOS license for Unity does include support for all iOS devices. Including both iPads.

6

Thanks to all for answers.

7

Simple answer: yes, definitely. Complex answer: depending on the game, you’d have to contact and get approval from various bodies; the rights for different parts of the Tolkien estate are held by a variety of entities. Most likely, you’d have to pitch to EA, and unless it’s fabulous and you have funding, the answer will be ‘no’.

So, just do like everybody else does, and make up stuff with elves and dwarves and orcs and hobbits, none of them named Legolas, Gimli, Azog or Frodo :wink:

8

Fixed. :wink:

–Eric

9

LOL! Yeah, like I was saying… be careful. Lawyers are even pickier than Eric, at least if you’re actually making money.

10

off topic, but your sig made me lol

11

The company I work for full time bought the license for the Lord of the Rings online casino game.
I don’t know the figure but the license just to build this game with the LOTR branding I heard was lets say a rather LARGE sum of money.

Rather make your own worlds or your own characters.
Also read some sci-fi/fantasy novels, and build your world/ideas from a mix of these books locations and characters.