INSANE $1 Million THE HOBBIT Game Prototype

[LegolasRanger]

 

[The Devils Reaper]

I would pay the full price of a new game for this demo

[Redgrave]

It looked like he had everything planned out too so it's a shame it never went through. I would love it if there was another attempt at it but it's done in the style of the PS2 games. Just give it the movie soundtrack and co-op and it's an instant buy for me.

[PhyrxianLibrarin]

Wait a minute, if they pitched this to Jackson and Del Toro, was this supposed to be a game based on their proposed The Hobbit movie?

 

As in... the story with Bilbo and a dragon and a bunch of dwarves, not the story with Frodo and Sam and Gandalf and the Nazgul? Maybe that $1M should've been spent on some more copies of Lord of the Rings for the staff to read.

 

The tech looks fine, but this is a weird concept for a game, playing as a hobbit straight up attacking orcs, when a huge point of the story is that hobbits are not warriors. Given what we now know about how the Hobbit trilogy got made, maybe this is for the best. Cool to see the footage as a historical artifact, though!

[starcrunch061]

3 hours ago, PhyrxianLibrarin said:

Wait a minute, if they pitched this to Jackson and Del Toro, was this supposed to be a game based on their proposed The Hobbit movie?

 

As in... the story with Bilbo and a dragon and a bunch of dwarves, not the story with Frodo and Sam and Gandalf and the Nazgul? Maybe that $1M should've been spent on some more copies of Lord of the Rings for the staff to read.

Yeah, that confused me too. In one of the videos, the guy clearly says, “The Hobbit”, even though he goes on and on about Gandalf and Saruman, etc.

 

Was this some old April Fool’s joke that was dusted off?

[The Arizona Ranger]

3 hours ago, starcrunch061 said:

Yeah, that confused me too. In one of the videos, the guy clearly says, “The Hobbit”, even though he goes on and on about Gandalf and Saruman, etc.

 

Was this some old April Fool’s joke that was dusted off?

 

See below for more information. @starcrunch061:

Quote

The above failed game pitch was well before the developer ever touched The Lord of the Rings franchise in LEGO form though. It was aournd 2008 that they saw it as time to attempt something new and wanted to work alongside the at-the-time project head and director of The Hobbit live adaptation, Guillermo del Toro, to make a Hobbit video game.

 

Because The Hobbit film had not yet been made, the team decided to use The Lord of the Rings own set pieces and scenes as the test case for what they wanted to accomplish with The Hobbit, as the goal was to capture the essence of the original movie trilogy but for this new project based around The Hobbit and pitch it to the rights holders in February 2009. The footage and screenshots seen were not indicative of The Hobbit game the company wanted to make, but rather a proof of concept using Lord of the Rings as the base.

 

Things didn’t go so well. Burton talks about how the project quickly got out of hand, with four full levels and five additional tech demos being constructed, including levels of full-on stealth gameplay that feature Frodo sneaking through a rainy forest and avoiding the Orc hoard. One of the most intriguing scenes is a spell-slinging battle between Gandalf and Saruman in which the player goes in and out of first and third-person, countering spells and fighting in a cinematic battle. There’s also a fight between Gandalf and the Balrog (no, not Barlog), Sam and Frodo avoiding the ringwraiths, and Aragorn in combat.

 

The entire video is a fascinating watch given none of this was ever actually intended to be the game itself. This all was just a proof of concept pitch to get approved to make a Hobbit companion game. It seems the troubles stemmed from some of the difficulties the film studio had in producing the movie trilogy as it was delayed and del Toro left the project. Burton eventually got to make both Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit games in LEGO form.

 

I guess sometimes the price tag just isn’t worth the cost to play along. Oh well. There’s always that Gollum game coming out on PlayStation 5 for the rest of us waiting for a good, non-LEGO Lord of the Rings game.

Quote

There are a lot of games based on the works of JRR Tolkien, particularly Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, but some footage has now emerged of one entry that never got made. Jon Burton, the founder of studio Traveller's Tales--known for their work on Sonic spin-offs and the Lego games--recently revealed a series of demos that the studio made as a pitch for a Hobbit game that was slated to accompany the first movie's release. That game never released. Instead, a different game bundling together the first two films' stories came out later down the line.

 

The demo recreates famous moments from The Lord of the Rings franchise, such as Gandalf's clash with the fiery Balrog, or Frodo and Samwise escaping from the treacherous Ringwraiths. According to Burton, the studio spent more than $1 million on the demos, which he describes as a highly-questionable move in retrospect.

 

However, Burton traveled to New Zealand to personally show their work to Peter Jackson and Guillermo Del Toro--who was at that point attached to the project--both of whom gave the studio their blessing to make a live-action Hobbit game. As Burton tells it, however, Warner Bros. wasn't interested in such a project, so it never saw the light of day. Since the film ended up getting delayed by more than a year, Burton says that the cancellation was a blessing in disguise, especially considering that Traveller's Tales later ended up making Lego versions of The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings anyway.

 

In terms of recent news concerning Tolkien's Middle-Earth, Amazon is still developing yet another adaptation of Lord of the Rings, this time for TV. The company is also making an MMO to go along with the series, but it's unclear how far along that is in development.

 

SOURCES

Quote #1: https://www.playstationlifestyle.net/2020/06/23/million-dollar-lord-of-the-rings-game-pitch/

Quote #2: https://www.gamespot.com/articles/gameplay-from-scrapped-lord-of-the-rings-demo-show/1100-6478877/

Edited July 10, 2020 by MossyOakRcn42

[LegolasRanger]

11 minutes ago, MossyOakRcn42 said:

 

See below for more information. @starcrunch061:

 

SOURCES

Quote #1: https://www.playstationlifestyle.net/2020/06/23/million-dollar-lord-of-the-rings-game-pitch/

Quote #2: https://www.gamespot.com/articles/gameplay-from-scrapped-lord-of-the-rings-demo-show/1100-6478877/

thank you i was never aware of this. dam  the feels wanna play a new lord of the rings game so bad hahaa

Edited July 10, 2020 by LegolasRanger

[mcnichoj]

On 7/7/2020 at 11:38 PM, totallycrushed said:

Stop reuploading videos with shitty edits. It's not your work.

Glad they did reupload, all the others got DMCA'd within a day. Been looking for this ever since and got lucky with stumbling on this thread. ...Roughly eight months later.

[Lord_Bane999]

Something I've been wondering as I seen it mentioned again.

 

But how would this work with Amazon's MMO they're developing? There's already a Lord of the Rings MMO and it's still has new content made for it. I get they could be two different time periods but I can't see them making their fanbase split between two different MMOs.

[MarcusPunisher]

The concept is really intriguing, but I doubt they would end up making the game as detailed as the demo.

[mcnichoj]

On 3/10/2021 at 9:45 AM, Lord_Bane999 said:

Something I've been wondering as I seen it mentioned again.

 

But how would this work with Amazon's MMO they're developing? There's already a Lord of the Rings MMO and it's still has new content made for it. I get they could be two different time periods but I can't see them making their fanbase split between two different MMOs.

Ignoring the first major glaring hole in why you think these two have anything to do with each other (one was a 360 game from the early 2000's while the MMO is being made today) why would two completely different companies making two completely different games conflict?

Did Square-Enix's Avengers have any effect on Iron Man VR?

[Lord_Bane999]

On 3/22/2021 at 6:42 PM, mcnichoj said:

Ignoring the first major glaring hole in why you think these two have anything to do with each other (one was a 360 game from the early 2000's while the MMO is being made today) why would two completely different companies making two completely different games conflict?

Did Square-Enix's Avengers have any effect on Iron Man VR?

 

The Lord of the Rings Online was never on Xbox 360 and a is a thriving PC MMO that will celebrating its 15th anniversary next year. It has it's last expansion in 2019 and it's next one will be releasing later this year.

 

So yeah my question is completely valid, why allow another MMO from the same series to be developed when the current one is still thriving and risk splitting the player base? Especially when Amazon Game Studios seems like their struggling hard to even deliver their own MMO.

 

Their not different games both will MMOS set within the LotR universe. Albeit as I said before though at different times hundreds of years apart supposedly.

 

Btw Marvel's Avengers does has something similar with Iron Man VR both of them couldn't keep enough people interested in them.

 

 

Edited March 26, 2021 by DaivRules

[DrBloodmoney]

9 hours ago, mcnichoj said:

Ignoring the first major glaring hole in why you think these two have anything to do with each other (one was a 360 game from the early 2000's while the MMO is being made today) why would two completely different companies making two completely different games conflict?

 

I think @Lord_Bane999 is asking about the new Amazon MMO conflicting with the existing LoTR MMO, rather than the Hobbit game that is the original subject of the thread -  if I interpreted the comment right?

 

 

 

9 hours ago, mcnichoj said:

Did Square-Enix's Avengers have any effect on Iron Man VR?

No - that's true - they were both unsuccessful critical and commercial failures, independent of one another.

 

One due to it not being a game, but rather a licensed delivery mechanism for micro transactions, and the other due to being a mini game on a platform no one needs, asked for or wants, that costs too much money, and necessitates the wearing of a silly hat to play.

Edited March 23, 2021 by DrBloodmoney

[Lord_Bane999]

11 minutes ago, DrBloodmoney said:

 

I think @Lord_Bane999 is asking about the new Amazon MMO conflicting with the existing LoTR MMO, rather than the Hobbit game that is the original subject of the thread -  if I interpreted the comment right?

Exactly.

 

In the one article quoted here it mentions about the new Amazon made MMO towards the end but I just find it interesting whenever the new MMO is mentioned they never being up the conflict of having two competing products in the same franchise.

 

A couple good examples of splitting the player base like this with competing products would be like when FFXI got "remade" into FFXIV. Or Blizzard starting Wow Classic along side it's updated counterpart. The huge difference being though usually when these things happen it's still the same company involved so even though technically the playerbases are split the revenue isn't.

 

With the new LOTR MMO it's a completely different company and will be releasing against an already established and very heavily expanded game that's already been made free to play. So they won't be seeing just a player base split but also a revenue split.

[DrBloodmoney]

1 minute ago, Lord_Bane999 said:

Exactly.

 

In the one article quoted here it mentions about the new Amazon made MMO towards the end but I just find it interesting whenever the new MMO is mentioned they never being up the conflict of having two competing products in the same franchise.

 

A couple good examples of splitting the player base like this with competing products would be like when FFXI got "remade" into FFXIV. Or Blizzard starting Wow Classic along side it's updated counterpart. The huge difference being though usually when these things happen it's still the same company involved so even though technically the playerbases are split the revenue isn't.

 

With the new LOTR MMO it's a completely different company and will be releasing against an already established and very heavily expanded game that's already been made free to play. So they won't be seeing just a player base split but also a revenue split.

 

I wouldn't think it will even become an issue - Amazon's games division is about as prolific as a box of sand.

 

I'd be astounded if any game ever made it past the conceptual development stage

[Lord_Bane999]

14 minutes ago, DrBloodmoney said:

 

I wouldn't think it will even become an issue - Amazon's games division is about as prolific as a box of sand.

 

I'd be astounded if any game ever made it past the conceptual development stage

I mean Crucible did once for like a month then they threw it back into the development until they killed it.

[DrBloodmoney]

4 minutes ago, Lord_Bane999 said:

I mean Crucible did once for like a month then they threw it back into the development until they killed it.

 

True - though I think the big problem with Crucible is that it didn't make it much past the conceptual development stage - they just released it anyways ?

Edited March 23, 2021 by DrBloodmoney

[mcnichoj]

9 hours ago, Lord_Bane999 said:

So yeah my question is completely valid

Yes, all questions are valid including the bad ones.

Square-Enix has had at least three traditional MMOs (that I'm aware about) currently running.

WoW and WoW Classic.

Magic The Gathering has two PC games currently running and supported with new cards.

I couldn't even tell you how many Yu-Gi-Oh games are still actively played.

Marvel has like at least five mobile games.

I assume they all thrive since they've all been running for years.

Hell, do you think Sega was afraid to release Phantasy Star Online 2 when they knew fan servers existed for Phantasy Star Online 1 and its various expansions? No, just like anyone else that wants to create a new MMO for something that exists from nearly a decade ago. People are probably bored and maxed out on LotRO and a new game would probably have completely overhauled and modernized combat/mechanics. Not to mention it's hard to advertise and get people interested in an old ass game. I never see ads for FFXI but constantly see them for XIV.

The bigger conflict would be for within Amazon themselves. They have two studios making MMOs (New World) which would be the equivalent of Activision putting out two CoDs at the same time.

 

9 hours ago, DrBloodmoney said:

I think @Lord_Bane999 is asking about the new Amazon MMO conflicting with the existing LoTR MMO, rather than the Hobbit game that is the original subject of the thread -  if I interpreted the comment right?

You're correct and I was actually about to apologize to him until I scrolled back up to the top post where no article links exist. Instead he randomly chooses to make a comment with no quote about something eight posts down.

Adding context to posts is hard.

[Lord_Bane999]

On 23/03/2021 at 0:57 PM, mcnichoj said:

Yes, all questions are valid including the bad ones.

Square-Enix has had at least three traditional MMOs (that I'm aware about) currently running.

WoW and WoW Classic.

Magic The Gathering has two PC games currently running and supported with new cards.

I couldn't even tell you how many Yu-Gi-Oh games are still actively played.

Marvel has like at least five mobile games.

I assume they all thrive since they've all been running for years.

Hell, do you think Sega was afraid to release Phantasy Star Online 2 when they knew fan servers existed for Phantasy Star Online 1 and its various expansions? No, just like anyone else that wants to create a new MMO for something that exists from nearly a decade ago. People are probably bored and maxed out on LotRO and a new game would probably have completely overhauled and modernized combat/mechanics. Not to mention it's hard to advertise and get people interested in an old ass game. I never see ads for FFXI but constantly see them for XIV.

The bigger conflict would be for within Amazon themselves. They have two studios making MMOs (New World) which would be the equivalent of Activision putting out two CoDs at the same time.

 

You're correct and I was actually about to apologize to him until I scrolled back up to the top post where no article links exist. Instead he randomly chooses to make a comment with no quote about something eight posts down.

Adding context to posts is hard.

You realize most of the examples you tried using after Square and Wow aren't are played by large numbers of players still?

 

For example try jumping into an older yugioh title online and see how many matches there is compared to the newer ones. Or look at the numbers foe the fan servers of PSO 1 compared to PSO2 (besides the fact their separated on different consoles and versions too)

 

Keep grasping straws 

 

Btw the article isn't linked I said it was quoted above which it is. Re-read the entire thread again. Before your next reply.

 

[mcnichoj]

9 hours ago, Lord_Bane999 said:

Keep grasping straws 

kEeP GrAsPiNg aT StRaWs.

 

LotRO hasn't had even 2,000 players in almost a year. Every relevant MMO completely shits on it. Mad Max has the same amount of players, an old ass singleplayer game. The game is kept up solely by a skeleton crew at this point with Z1 on PC keeping the dev company afloat.

lol@ the idea no one plays WoW.

 

That one spike was probably some special promotion but otherwise they averaged a minimum of a million players for years, a number Daybreak Games wishes they could hit with all their games combined.

[starcrunch061]

This is a boring turn for the thread. It reminds me of <ugh>...gamefaqs.

[DaivRules]

Would be great if people could converse without personal attacks.