Reports: New Lord of the Rings Game in Development with $100M Backing from Abu Dhabi Govt Firm

A new The Lord of the Rings game is "in development," and it has reportedly been in the works for quite "some time."

According to Insider Gaming, the upcoming project is expected to receive major backing from the Abu Dhabi Investment Office (ADIO), a government entity in the United Arab Emirates, with funding estimated to be around $100 million. While the deal hasn’t been fully finalized yet, reports suggest it’s close to being signed and could be made official as early as next week. Until now, the development has been financed internally, but external support seems to be lining up to push the project forward.

The game is described as a third-person action adventure, and it’s reportedly being positioned as a direct competitor to 2023's best-selling game, Hogwarts Legacy. If that’s the case, we could be looking at something big, possibly even open-world, though nothing has been confirmed yet.

Alongside ADIO, multiple partners are said to be involved in the project. Names floating around include Embracer Group, which owns the video game rights to The Lord of the Rings since its $400 million acquisition in 2022, as well as Revenge and other studios.

The Lord of the Rings franchise has a long and varied history in gaming, stretching across more than four decades. We’ve seen everything from real-time strategy games and RPGs to blockbuster action-adventures. EA’s movie tie-ins in the 2000s were huge commercial successes, and later, the Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor and Shadow of War titles received critical acclaim for their Nemesis system and open-world design.

More recently, though, the franchise has struggled to find its footing. Games like The Lord of the Rings: Gollum (2023) and Return to Moria (2023) didn’t quite capture the magic of Tolkien’s world, leaving fans craving something more ambitious. That’s why this new project feels especially important, it could be the game to bring LOTR back into the spotlight in a big way.

For now, we’ll have to wait for official confirmation, but if the reports are true, fans of Middle-earth may soon have a new adventure to look forward to.