Electronic Arts is known for creating blockbuster games based on series like Star Wars, but it's also worked with plenty of other famous IPs in the past. One, Nintendo gamers from the 2000s might recall, is Middle-Earth's The Lord of the Rings series.
Now, many years later, the games giant has announced it is returning to the world created by J.R.R. Tolkien with a new game. The catch is it's a free-to-play mobile title, but hey - who knows what else could be released later down the line...
The game is officially titled 'The Lord of the Rings: Heroes of Middle-Earth' and is described as a "collectible role-playing" turn-based game bringing the fantasy and adventure of the series, and merging it with a strategic social-competitive experience.
"Electronic Arts has a celebrated relationship with the Tolkien universe having delivered PC and console titles based on The Lord of the Ringsbooks and films. In active development by a veteran team of experts in the mobile RPG genre, Capital Games – The Lord of the Rings: Heroes of Middle-earthrepresents the first mobile game developed by EA inspired by storylines, locations, characters, and lore from The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbitliterary works."
Unsurprisingly, many fans are now calling for EA to revive some of its classic Lord of the Ring games from around the time of the GameCube, Xbox and PlayStation 2 era.
While the Switch might not be getting this game, Middle-Earth enthusiasts can keep an eye out for The Lord of the Rings: Gollum, which is expected to arrive at some point this year.
How do you feel about this announcement? Would you like to see the return of the classic EA LOTR games one day? Leave your thoughts down below.
[source ea.com]
Comments 20
Removed - unconstructive
The Return of the King game on the Cube was brilliant. Have really fond memories of that one. Considering how good Fallen Order was, EA could do alright with a proper LotR game that isn’t this or the weird PS2 looking Gollum game.
Hmmm...whatever happen to that Gollum game?
Ugh.
Why do people keep partnering with EA? Once up a time, they were solid, but now, it's just pretty visuals with no fun underneath
EA and a mobile game?
That's a combination that will go down well on this site
@sleepinglion Because they swim in money.
They can produce garbage one after the other and people still buy it on sight.
Licensing your stuff to EA is a sound investment.
Not in a good product, but in a good bottom line.
@Einherjar : Good bottom line in the short term. EA doesn’t seem to care at all about cultivating customer loyalty.
@sleepinglion In large part I agree, but there are exceptions.
Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order was an amazing game and one of the few games in recent years I actually managed to finish.
What can men do against such reckless hate?
The switch won't get shadow of war or shadow of mordor but it might get a port of a rubbish mobile game
I'd rather the LotR license be in the hands of EA, than in Warner Bros.
Wonder if this is connected with the Amazon series due later this year??
Battle for middle-earth needs to make a come back. Though unsure if EA has the talent to do a decent RTS anymore, let alone the balls to do one without mtx and live service crap.
The fan HD remasters of the two games are still solid fun even by today's standards.
Remake Lego lord of the rings like the new Star Wars and with the hobbit series added too.
I'm still waiting on the last DLC pack for LEGO the hobbit on my WiiU.
If EA can put the tree LOTR games out on the switch, oohhhh boy I would play the hell out of them.
@Silly_G Usually, short term is all "bottom line investment" really cares about anyway.
Then again, as mentioned above, EAs titles usually draw a rather consistent audience no matter how they fail.
Battlefield this year has been an utter disaster and i can guarantee you, this will not prevent the next one to sell gangbusters again.
Same with their sports games. Regardless of how they decline in quality, people buy them.
And that's what companies invest in. This somewhat stable bottom line.
They draw profits with minimal work effort. That's a golden investment opportunity. You cash in regardless of if they make the perfect videogame or utter garbage.
@Einherjar : I was commenting more so from my perspective as a (mostly) former customer.
I used to be a huge fan of The Sims, and bought almost every available game for every platform in my possession until the end of the lifespan of The Sims 2 (and I’d bought a few console iterations of The Sims 3), but due to several anti-consumer practices, awful handling of the Australian releases, a ridiculous decline in quality of some of their releases, and the fact that The Sims 3 on PC booted up to a wealth of greyed-out DLC before I even got a chance to start playing the game put me off completely. I still thoroughly enjoy the first two games (and their spin-offs), but I doubt that I will ever play another new Sims game moving forward as the franchise is virtually unrecognisable from what it once was.
@Silly_G The issue is, that despite all that, the series makes money. They get away with selling asset packs, a tiny amount of 3D models you can plop into your game, for 20+ bucks a pop.
They get away with hiding vital game fixes in DLC (SimCity's Blimp DLC containing the fix for their fundamentally broken traffic system).
As long as people blindly buy that stuff, nothing will ever change.
One positive example was Star Wars Battlefront 2. The very first EA game that came close to being boycotted because of its predatory business practices.
And due to it, it turned into a pretty good game in the end.
And that needs to happen more often.
"Vote with your wallet" exists for a reason.
The only thing I want out of this is a digital re-release of THE TWO TOWERS and ROTK GameCube-era titles. Preferably upscaled and in a double pack.
@CharlieGirl I agree. EA did a great job with The Battle for Middle-Earth series. If you enjoy RTS games they’re worth a look.
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