Warner Bros. Sued for Lord of the Rings Slots

Readers may remember that back in May we announced the sudden closure of Microgaming's video slot game: The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring. Needless to say, this came as a bit of a surprise as the slot game was doing extremely well since its launch in 2010. Back then, it was widely speculated that the closure was due to a breach in copyright agreement, and it's possible that we were right as it looks like Warner Bros. now have a big, fat lawsuit on their laps. An $80 million lawsuit, no less. 

Earlier today, it was announced that the estate of the late British author J. R. R. Tolkien is taking entertainment giant Warner Bros. for unauthorized merchandising. It is claimed that Warner Bros. do not have the electronic rights to the Lord of Rings property, and have over-stepped an agreement by launching the Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring slot game. According to Tolkien, WB were only ever granted the rights to exploit the Lord of the Rings brand by releasing "tangible products" to the market. 

The lawsuit comes just a week before the New Zealand premier of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, the first in a new Hobbit Trilogy, also based on the fiction of Tolkein. 

And just to top it off, a volcano which feature in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, blew its top and erupted in Wellington, NZ last Wednesday, shooting a 2-mile column of ash into the air.

Meanwhile, for those pining for the Lord of the Rings video games of yesterday, it would be worthwhile trying out the Batman: The Dark Knight video slot game as reviewed on our site, Thunderstruck II and Immortal Romance.