Aspyr has plans to re-release more Lord of the Rings games following its shadow drop of The Lord of the Rings: War in the North on modern platforms.
In a press release for the new version of War in the North, Aspyr planted a small tease for the future of the Lord of the Rings franchise in gaming: “The Lord of the Rings: War in the North – Legacy Edition is licensed by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and is the first The Lord of the Rings title released by Aspyr,” reads the press release. “Fans can look forward to even more classic releases by Aspyr from the beloved franchise in the future!”
That last part is the most notable bit, as it confirms we will be seeing more re-releases of classic Lord of the Rings games in the future. It’s unclear which titles may follow, but there are a few possibilities. Aspyr has spent a lot of time bringing games to the Nintendo Switch, so it wouldn’t be shocking if the studio ported Shadow of Mordor and/or Shadow of War to Switch 2 in the future. What fans really want, however, are likely re-releases of the titles made under EA in the early to mid 2000s.
This would include the movie tie-in games made during the PS2 era, such as the critically-acclaimed The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, and The Lord of the Rings: Conquest, which is basically Star Wars: Battlefront in Middle-earth. The latter wasn’t as well-received by critics, but it holds a soft spot among some fans. There are also a bunch of great strategy games like Battle for Middle-earth that fans would love to revisit. It’s unclear if there’d be any rights issues with those games, given EA published them.
Although Warner Bros. holds the rights to the franchise, licensed games from this era are notoriously wrapped up in all kinds of rights issues (see Activision’s Marvel games, for example). We’ve reached out to Aspyr for comment on whether the EA titles are fair game or not, but either way, more classic Lord of the Rings games are on the way to modern hardware.
Cade Onder is a freelancer for IGN’s news team. He covers all things entertainment, including gaming, film, and more. You can find him on Twitter @Cade_Onder.