Our MeinMMO editor Karsten Scholz is a huge fan of the universe of The Lord of the Rings and the Kingdom Come RPG series. Soon, both could come together.
In a very strong RPG year 2025, Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 was not only the RPG that I enjoyed the most, but it was also my game of the year. The developers at Warhorse Studios have a fantastic knack for creating a realistically appearing, grounded, and immersive game world in which I can wonderfully lose myself for 100+ hours.
What I also liked about the second part were the clear advancements compared to the already good but somewhat rough predecessor. Sure, there are still quirky edges and corners in Heinrich’s second adventure. But those are what give the charm to the RPG for me. Nevertheless, Part 2 was significantly more polished than the first Kingdom Come.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 is a great RPG, definitely play it!
A rumor that excites
So I am very curious about what kind of project the Warhorse Studios will be working on in the coming years. A current insider report now indicates that the Czech developers have secured the license for The Lord of the Rings.
Specifically, it concerns a statement from Ryszard Chojnowski on the Tolkien Polska Podcast on YouTube, which has also been reported on ResetEra. It states:
Some months ago, Insider Gaming reported that the United Arab Emirates were investing 100 million dollars into a new open-world game in the ‘The Lord of the Rings’ universe, on which one of the studios of the Embracer Group (which holds the rights to LotR games) is working under the codename ‘Revenge Studios’.
A few days ago, there was a podcast in which the Polish industry veteran Ryszard Chojnowski revealed that he had heard from credible sources that the studio is indeed Warhorse Studios – the creators of Kingdom Come: Deliverance, who also belong to Embracer. Apparently, he had heard this several months ago and initially did not believe it, but recently the rumors have been increasing.
Who is Ryszard Chojnowski? Chojnowski is a Polish expert in game localization. He was the project manager for The Witcher, but he has also worked on translations for games like Diablo 2, Baldur’s Gate, BioShock, and Fortnite.
The industry veteran has been involved with various reputable publishers and studios, is thus extremely well-connected, and certainly wouldn’t want to damage his status and reputation by spreading unfounded rumors.
Furthermore, there have not only been the rumors mentioned in the quote about a new Lord of the Rings project, but also hints that at Warhorse, a game aside from Kingdom Come: Deliverance 3 (CryEngine) is supposed to be developed, which is likely based on Unreal Engine (via Reddit).
For me, it is already clear: The Lord of the Rings and Warhorse would fit together perfectly. Just imagine a version of Middle-earth, with all the design strengths present in the open world of Kingdom Come:
A credible, atmospheric world with day-night cycles, NPCs with realistically appearing daily routines that respond in understandable ways to the actions of the main character, entertaining main and side quests, a homeopathic dose of survival …
Ideally, there would then also be a noticeable advance compared to Kingdom Come 2, through the additional experiences the team has gained in recent years. The result would be an extremely exciting open-world project for a universe that has received far too few good games in recent years. In short: I CAN’T WAIT!
All the more reason, because behind the MMORPG for The Lord of the Rings, which is to be developed for Embracer at Amazon Games, there is a big question mark after the end of New World. Consequently, I hope that the rumor will come true. Do you hope so too? You can find out more about the Lord of the Rings MMO here: After the end of New World, a developer now has bad news for the MMORPG for The Lord of the Rings: “You would have loved it”
