Warhorse confirms they Making a Lord of the Rings RPG

After months of speculation that started with some sketchy leaks back in March, Warhorse Studios has officially confirmed it's building an open-world Lord of the Rings RPG. The studio dropped the news on May 20th via social media, posting that they're working on "an open world Middle-earth RPG" and "a new Kingdom Come adventure". Two huge projects. One incredibly exciting studio. And honestly? It's hard to think of a better pairing than Warhorse and Middle-earth.

If you played Kingdom Come: Deliverance II, you already know why this matters. The game sold more than 5 million copies in its first year, and it earned that success the hard way — through obsessive attention to detail, a world that actually feels lived-in, and a refusal to compromise on the studio's vision of grounded, immersive roleplay. Now imagine that same team turning their craft loose on Tolkien's world.

What we actually know

Not a lot, if we're being honest. Warhorse has kept the specifics under wraps and said they're "excited to tell you more when the time is right". But a few things are worth flagging. 

First, the budget. Leaks suggest the project is sitting on roughly $100 million, which would make it one of the more expensive RPG productions in recent memory. For context, Kingdom Come: Deliverance II was made for an estimated $41 million, so this is a serious step up. Whether that figure holds remains to be seen, but it suggests genuine ambition rather than a quick licensing cash-in.

Second, the era. The announcement specifically used the phrase "Middle-earth RPG" rather than "Lord of the Rings RPG", and this suggests the game may not be set during the War of the Ring at all. Middle-earth's history is vast — the Second Age, the rise and fall of Númenor, the forging of the Rings, the early days of the Dúnedain — and Warhorse has the room to take us somewhere we haven't been before. Given how well the studio handles historical setting and political intrigue, an earlier Age might actually be the perfect fit.

The bigger picture

The announcement landed alongside another major shift at parent company Embracer. Embracer is splitting into two publicly traded companies, with one — Fellowship Entertainment — operating as an "IP-led entertainment company" with Lord of the Rings rights at its core. Warhorse will sit inside Fellowship alongside Tomb Raider, Metro, Dead Island and Kingdom Come.

Translation: this isn't a one-off side project. Lord of the Rings is being positioned as a tentpole franchise for years to come, and Warhorse's RPG is the flagship.

Why this could be the one

Lord of the Rings games have a patchy track record. For every Shadow of Mordor there's a string of forgettable tie-ins, and the bigger the IP, the bigger the temptation to play it safe. But Warhorse doesn't really do "safe". Kingdom Come earned its reputation by being prickly, demanding, and deeply specific about the world it depicted. That same instinct applied to Middle-earth, to mud-spattered villages in the Shire, to the hard frontier life of Eriador, to the dwarven holds before the dragons came, could give us the Tolkien game we've genuinely wanted for twenty years.

For now, all we can do is wait. But for the first time in a long time, the wait feels worth it.