Warner Bros. Announces The Hobbit Games

Warner Bros. has partnered with Kabam to create two free-to-play games inspired by The Hobbit for the web and mobile devices.

Both The Hobbit: Kingdoms of Middle-earth for mobile devices and The Hobbit: Armies of the Third Age for web browsers will be multiplayer strategy games, due out in Autumn 2012.

The Hobbit: Kingdoms of Middle-earth will task players with building and managing their own kingdom in Middle-earth, including joining with other players to engage in war, while The Hobbit:  Armies of the Third Age will offer gamers strategic combat, whilst controlling iconic characters including Bilbo and Gandalf at the head of an army of Elves, Dwarves or Orcs.

Warner Bros. senior VP of Digital Games Greg Ballard said, "We are very pleased to work with Kabam in creating immersive free-to-play online games on massive scales across multiple platforms. Kabam’s Armies of the Third Age and Kingdoms of Middle-earth will be an excellent way for The Hobbit film fans around the world to delve more into the iconic story and interact with the characters in the universe."

Anyone wishing to register for the upcoming beta for Armies of the Third Age can do so now at the game's website.

Luke Karmali is IGN's UK Editorial Assistant. You too can revel in mediocrity by following him on IGN and on Twitter.

Source : ign[dot]com

Epic Gives Ex-Kingdom of Amalur Devs a New Home

Epic has formed a new studio comprising many of the developers who worked on Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning at Big Huge Games, before its parent company 38 Studios filed for bankruptcy.

The new venture is called Impossible Studios, and will be based in Maryland. Sean Dunn will head the studio, overseeing its very first project: Infinity Blade: Dungeons, an action RPG for iOS made in collaboration with Epic and Chair Entertainment (the team behind the previous Infinity Blade titles).

Studio Logo

Dunn said, "Epic Games has truly embraced this stellar collection of developers who were displaced by the closing of Big Huge Games. They have looked after us with complete care, giving us all the tools and resources we need to make a lot of gamers happy." Meanwhile,  the president of Epic Games Mike Capps said, "We were so glad we could help keep this great team together, and we're lucky to have them."

"At the time, I said that finding a full team of superstars was 'impossible' and apparently the name stuck! Pairing the imagination and experience of Impossible with Epic's technology, IP and resources makes for a business greater than the sum of its parts."

Are you excited to see what the Amalur dev team does next? Let us know in the comments below.

Daniel is IGN's UK Games Writer. He hopes to live long and prosper. You can follow him on IGN and Twitter.

Source : ign[dot]com