The Lord of the Rings license has journeyed to EA and back again to Warner Bros. The Cut Scene reports that the licensing deal for EA to create titles based on the Lord of the Rings films quietly expired at the end of last year. At that time, the rights reverted back to New Line, which is part of Warner Bros. When EA received the Ring license back in 2001, Warner wasn't fully committed to the game business ... that's certainly changed this decade. Warner has also heavily invested in Turbine, developer of Lord of the Rings Online. Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment apparently declined to comment on the story.

The movie industry is certainly attempting with increasing regularity to enter the game space, hiring executives that may get the job done. Paramount is ready to publish (the rumored) Star Trek DAC in a couple months, while Disney has become far less reliant on licensing its properties to THQ over the years. In time, it appears we'll see more in-house development of games that we currently see "licensed" out, which will hopefully mean better products.

http://www.joystiq.com/2009/03/12/pr...from-ea-to-wb/