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Red Herring publishes Sierra's sordid details - Lord of the Rings news - J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings

April 29, 2001 at 17:06:54

Middle-earth online has been the talk of the online gaming world for over two years. It just hasn't been there to enjoy the talk.

In September 1999, Sierra On-Line stunned the online gaming world by disassembling its Middle-earth franchise, throwing "Orcs: Revenge of the Ancient" to the winds and firing around 100 employees, most if not all of whom were involved in the then more-than-year-old project called Middle-earth Online. Since then, Sierra has been silent, except to say it was still developing the game.

But word on the Net was that Sierra had a major falling out with Tolkien Enterprises, which had granted the company the original license to develop Middle-earth computer games. Except for Xenite.Org's investigative reporting (see list of stories below), for more than a year, the online world has been treated to a smattering of rumors and false alerts. Now, Red Herring has unveiled some of the secret history in their April 15 print edition.

The tale begins in 1999, when Sierra underwent a change in management. Havas Interactive, now a division of Vivendi Universal (which also owns Paramount and the Star Trek franchise), acquired Sierra On-Line and sister properties. The new management looked at the state-of-the-art 3D graphics and extremely faithful-to-Tolkien game design and said, "We want something with more mass market appeal". The game designers pointed out that their market research indicated about 100,000 people were waiting to sign up for the massively multiplayer online role-playing game. That was not enough for Havas.

So, the whole project was tanked and the staff fired on September 22, which has become known as Black Monday, and not coincidentally coincides with the birthdays of Bilbo and Frodo Baggins (in our calendar -- technically, their birthdays fall on another day). At this point, the gaming world was taken out of the loop.

Red Herring reports that Sierra asked Tolkien Enterprises for an extension on the license through 2001. Tolkien Enterprises reportedly balked at the request, so Sierra allegedly slapped together a proposal for an interim game based on outdated technology. Tolkien Enterprises at that point deemed Sierra to be in default of their contract and issued noticed that the contract was terminated.

Sierra responded by filing a lawsuit against Tolkien Enterprises in February 2000, alleging breach of contract. At the same time, it now appears, Sierra contracted with MM3D under a veil of absolute secrecy to develop a new Middle-earth Online. But Tolkien Enterprises responded swiftly to the lawsuit by contacting former Sierra developers and acquiring depositions from them concerning the slaughter on September 22, 1999.

During this time, Electronic Arts approached New Line Cinema about acquiring the rights to produce video games based on Peter Jackson's upcoming "Lord of the Rings" movies. New Line Cinema was already looking for merchandising opportunities, and Tolkien Enterprises reportedly had been pressuring Toy Vault to surrender its action figure license almost two years before their contract expired. Lawyers were rattled in their sheathes and Toy Vault's production schedule entered a veil of secrecy (two more action figures, probably the last in the line, were released in late 2000).

In June 2000, rumors started circulating that Electronic Arts had acquired the license from New Line Cinema to produce a massively multiplayer online game, but the promised announcement never appeared. Rumors hit the print media in late 2000, but Electronic Arts never confirmed the deal. Early this year New Line Cinema announced an Electronic Arts contract but Electronic Arts quickly admitted that the contract had not been finalized.

Within just the past week, news broke that MM3D had filed a lawsuit against Sierra, alleging breach of contract. Sierra reportedly had refused to pay MM3D the $10 million that MM3D said it had cost to develop the new game. Within a few days, however, Sierra and MM3D reached an agreement and MM3D withdrew its lawsuit. But the long rumored game's existence had now been confirmed.

Other articles Xenite.Org has published concerning the online gaming battle and action figure licenses since June 2000:

Sierra Talks to Middle-earth Stratics...sort of -- March 12, 2001

Electronic Arts isn't looking so LOTR-like -- January 12, 2001

New Line on the financial defensive over film budgets, licensing? -- December 24, 2000

Middle-earth online cancelled? -- December 15, 2000

Sierra gets its game? So says PC Gamer... -- November 13, 2000

Could PC Zone be more wrong? -- October 23, 2000

Gaming rumors: much ado about darned little -- October 12, 2000

Gamespot picks up Sierra lawsuit story -- August 28, 2000

Sierra On-Line President acknowledges lawsuit in interview with The Vault -- August 25, 2000

Sierra lawsuit against Saul Zaentz/Tolkien Enterprises appears to be real -- August 8, 2000

Sierra On-line suing Tolkien Enterprises? -- August 4, 2000

Middle-earth.Com Web site IP address confusing curious gamers, fans -- August 1, 2000

Toy Vault not talking about LOTR action figures license -- July 22, 2000

More news from Dragoncon -- July 4, 2000

Toy Vault still retains its license to distribute action figures -- June 18, 2000

More confusion about LOTR-based computer games erupts on Net -- June 15, 2000

Collectors wondering if Toy Biz license means end of Toy Vault line -- June 13, 2000

LoTR Movie News archive from May 30, 2000 through June 9, 2000

LoTR Movie News archive from May 19, 2000 through May 29, 2000

Note: Because we now carry regularly updated headlines from Tolkien Online and TheOneRing.Net, Xenite.Org has not devoted as much attention to these issues as it once did. With our news providers covering the press releases from New Line Cinema and Electronic Arts, we have tried to avoid redundancy. Some gaming related news is also reported at TheOneRing.Net's Gaming Havens.