The Hobbit (full title The Hobbit: The Prelude to The Lord of the Rings) is a 2003 platform/action-adventure video game developed by Inevitable Entertainment for the GameCube, PlayStation 2 and Xbox, by The Fizz Factor for Microsoft Windows and by Saffire Corporation for the Game Boy Advance. It was published on all platforms by Sierra Entertainment. In North America, the game was released on all platforms in November 2003. In Europe, it was released for the Game Boy Advance in October and for all other systems in November. The game is a licensed adaptation of J. R. R. Tolkien's 1937 novel The Hobbit, and has no relationship with the Peter Jackson-directed Lord of the Rings film trilogy. At the time, Vivendi, in partnership with Tolkien Enterprises, held the rights to the video game adaptations of Tolkien's literary works, whilst Electronic Arts held the rights to the video game adaptations of the New Line Cinema films. The game sticks very closely to the plot of the novel, although it does feature some minor characters not found in Tolkien's original. The Hobbit received mixed reviews across all systems, with critics praising its fidelity to the source material, but finding the gameplay unoriginal and too easy.