We've had LOTR games, but never the fully open-world RPG that we've been hoping for. Could this be it?
One does not simply make a Lord of the Rings game. There's so much expectation from fans going in; this is a hugely rich and already developed world, and needs to be treated with the respect and decorum it deserves.
There have been some half-decent recent attempts at Lord of the Rings games, but they've been narrow in focus. Shadow of Morder was good, but was completely divorced from the lore. And the upcoming Gollum game looks impressive too, but it'll only be showing us a very limited glimpse of Middle Earth. Could a new game from the studio behind the Peter Jackson movies be the answer?
Weta Workshop's New Game
Weta Workshop are a New Zealand-based studio who worked with Peter Jackson on the Lord of the Rings Trilogy. Those guys put out a job ad recently that asked for the following:
We are currently looking for an exceptionally talented Game Producer to join our team in beautiful Wellington. The role will help us deliver our next PC and Console game project with a major worldwide IP that is very close to our hearts.
They've worked on other titles, but the fact that this IP is “very close to our hearts” near-enough confirms a new LOTR. We only know this much so far, but we can't wait to find out more.
Now, this is a studio that haven't been involved in a ton of games, so they'll probably need a lot of help on the project. And we should also make clear that this is in the early stages of development, we aren't expecting a release date anytime soon. But if they're struggling to get this project off the ground, we know who we'd like them to ask for help…
Well, folks, we'll just have to wait and see what comes of this. Until then, you can enjoy Amazon's LOTR series. And if you are a Tolkien fan, why not take a deep dive into our predictions for the Amazon show?