EA and Vivendi lock Lords

EA and Vivendi are once again spamming us with news of their next Lord of the Rings titles. For those who missed last year's circus, EA has the right to make games based on the movies (which it did with mainstream-tapping aplomb), and Vivendi has the right to make games based on the books (which it did somewhat lamentably).

This year, EA is working on The Return of the King, as you might expect, with PS2, Xbox, Cube, PC and GBA releases planned as the publisher has previously hinted. The game will take a similar shape to The Two Towers, based on events from the film and giving the player third-person control of Gandalf, Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli, Sam and Frodo at various points in the adventure through Middle Earth. The console and PC versions are being developed at EA's Redwood Shores Studio. Griptonite Games is developing the GBA version, which will take a slightly different stand.

Meanwhile, Vivendi's Black Label Games, er, label, has announced that Surreal Software is working on Lord of the Rings: The Treason of Isengard for PS2 and Xbox, which is another third person action-adventure type thing with multiple playable characters, huge battle sequences and so on. Very much the same sort of thing as EA, then, and a spiritual successor to their Fellowship title. Another product of Black Label's Rings' licence is War of the Ring, a PC RTS title under development at Liquid Entertainment - and that sounds more interesting, doesn't it? Liquid's previous work includes Battle Realms.