Kingdom Come dev Warhorse working on new Lord of the Rings Middle-earth RPG

It's official: Warhorse Studios is indeed developing a new Lord of the Rings game, and the news was confirmed in today's spin-off announcement from Embracer.

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The rumors were right, and Kingdom Come developer Warhorse is working on a new RPG set in the Middle-earth franchise. The info was announced by Embracer during its business strategy briefing. Embracer will spin off Fellowship Entertainment, which includes a ton of other IPs like Tomb Raider, Metro, and Dead Island, into a separate standalone group. Warhorse, and the Lord of the Rings franchise as a whole, are both part of this group.

"Warhorse is making a new game set in Middle-earth. The studio celebrated for its extraordinary depth, historical authenticity, and storytelling, is bringing that craft to the greatest fantasy world ever created--an expansive, deep, open-world experience. Warhorse demonstrated with Kingdom Come that they are one of the premiere open-world RPG studios on the planet," Fellowship Entertainment confirmed today.

"Middle-earth deserves a game of that ambition and that craft. And this is what Fellowship Entertainment is--not just a holder of valuable IP, an active steward of it, putting the right creators with the right worlds, and building experiences that can define a generation of players."

No official details other than a confirmation were revealed, but it was also said that Warhorse is simultaneously working on a new project set in the Kingdom Come universe--which makes sense, considering that studio owns the rights to the series.

Fellowship also says that these new games won't all be online live service games with tons of microtransactions:

Fellowship Entertainment is built around a clear strategic focus: worlds that players return to - again and again. This does not imply live service games, but rather game worlds that generate fans, not just customers. The Lord of the Rings alone represents one of the world's most enduring and valuable IPs.