Turbine and Tolkien Sitting In A Tree

"We have had a wonderful working relationship with Turbine over the past several years," said Albert M. Bendich, Executive Vice President of The Saul Zaentz Company, and its merchandising division Tolkien Enterprises. "We look forward to our continuing success with Turbine as it pushes the envelope for compelling online entertainment and gameplay to bring the compelling characters of Middle-earth to life for Tolkien fans around the world."

2K Games has licensed the Unreal Engine 3 for multiple "unannounced games in development." Many of you will remember that Bioshock was UE3 based, and while this news doesn't point to "ZOMG Bioshock 2," it does lend a bit of credence to the capabilities and ease of use of the UE3 engine...a reputation that's been in question by some, especially with 2K's president going on record to say things like "2K had a very positive experience working with Epic's Unreal Engine 3 since it enables games to perform exceptionally well on both console and the PC." Plus, wow, we can't believe Bioshock 2 has been announced with such little fanfare (joke, btw, I don't want to see that quote floating around the internet this afternoon....maybe I should delete it...nah.) Here's the full tale from the mouth of PR.

Major League Eating Game Coming Soon

Mastiff has acquired the hottest license since EA snagged rights to the NFL—Major League Eating. They'll be producing MLE: The Game for unspecified platform(s), an experience celebrating gastrointestinal warfare through burps, belches and "mustard gas." Games should note the bold inclusion of a full twelve food groups—at least seven more food groups than man has ever attempted to identify before. Before you hit the jump for the best press release we've seen all day, catch this quote from Mastiff head hancho Bill Swartz:

Major League Eaters aren't just elite athletes. They are the people who built America. Or at least the competitive eating part of America. And I am deeply honored that the International Federation of Competitive Eating and Major League Eating choose Mastiff as their exclusive videogame partner.

America's Army Deployed To Toy Aisles

Florida-based toy manufacturer Jazwares announced today the availability of America's Army Real Heroes, a line of action figures semi-based on the America's Army series of video games and modeled after real-life military personnel. Yes, it's a little weird. Four America's Army soldiers comprise the first line, including Sergeant Tommy Riemen, Sergeant First Class Gerald Wolford, Staff Sergeant Matthew Zedwick, and Major Jason Amerine. Three of the four have been awarded the Silver Star for Gallantry in Action for their service in the Iraq War, with the fourth given the Bronze Star with V Device for Bravery while in Afghanistan.

The company also makes action figures based on characters from Mega Man, Viewtiful Joe, Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter. America's Army Real Heroes action figures are now available at Toys 'R' Us and Jazwares official site.

Press release after the jump.

Factor Five's Julian Eggebrecht, following what's started as a shaky response to Lair, has reassessed his position on licensing IPs. Addressing a crowd in roundtable discussion, here was his experiential advice.

Fox Goes into Halo Merchandising

Ben 10 Tapped For Video Game