It looks like EA is back to working on new titles associated with Lord of the Rings. According to IGN, the video game giant has renewed its partnership with Middle Earth Enterprises, the company that owns worldwide exclusive rights to J.R.R. Tolkein’s The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings. EA also simultaneously announced a brand new title right out of the gate, a mobile entry dubbed Heroes of Middle-Earth. The title will be developed by EA Capital Games which is based in Sacramento, California, and has a planned regional beta test slated for this Summer.
For those who don’t know, EA Capitol Games is the very same studio that developed Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes, which went onto generate an insane $1.2 billion by early 2021. According to the post, Heroes of Middle-Earth will have “immersive storytelling, turn-based combat, deep collection systems, and a wide roster of characters” from both of Tolkein’s popular novels. It will also feature casual and competitive play for multiplayer, and will also have some impressive visuals to boot. EA did not offer any more concrete information in regards to a release date or any actual gameplay footage.
EA and Middle Earth Enterprises’ partnership goes back a long way. From 2002 all the way until 2010, EA was the main publisher for any Lord of the Rings AAA release on all major platforms, with the movie trilogy titles being generally well-received at the time. After that, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment began its own deal with Middle Earth Enterprises, which continues to this day. Arguably the most successful entry from that partnership was Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor, which was critically acclaimed and garnered multiple Game of the Year awards in 2014.