GoKawiilWarhorse Studios, the developer behind the Kingdom Come: Deliverance series, is making a Lord of the Rings RPG.
The Czech developer announced the as-yet untitled "open world Middle-earth RPG" on its official X page, where it also said that it has started development on another Kingdom Come game. We don't have a whole lot more to go on than that at the moment, with the studio promising additional details at a later date.
If you're a keen observer of the video game rumor mill then you'll be aware that there have been whispers of a Warhorse-developed LotR game for a while now. With Kingdom Come: Deliverance and its excellent 2025 sequel, the studio proved that it knows how to make story-driven open-world RPGs, and Middle-earth presumably isn't too large of a leap from the medieval Bohemia setting of those games. Throw in some orcs and a few dragons and you're good to go.
What will be interesting is whether Warhorse decides to stick with the first-person perspective of its recent games, or takes a more Witcher 3-like approach. The Kingdom Come: Deliverance games are also known for their unapologetically realistic and challenging gameplay, so it's easy to imagine a LotR equivalent in which you play as a hapless hobbit or rookie soldier.
The news comes as Warhorse Studios' parent company Embracer Group has announced that it plans to spin off its multi-studio Fellowship Entertainment division as a new publicly listed company. In addition to building on the Tolkien-related IP rights it first acquired in 2022, Fellowship Entertainment will also double down on Embracer's other big-hitting franchises, which include Tomb Raider and Dead Island, as well as the aforementioned Kingdom Come: Deliverance.
Warhorse's in-development RPG might not be the only game based on Tolkien's universe that we have to look forward to either. Although Amazon recently canceled its Lord of the Rings MMO, it still has a deal with Embracer to make games using the IP. Amazon Gaming chief Jeff Gratis told Eurogamer last week that his team "continues to explore a compelling new game experience that does justice to Tolkien's world."