Thanks also goes to lnatan25 -Ed Fans of realtime strategy and the novels of J.R.R. Tolkien have rather an embarassment of riches to deal with this coming holiday. In opposition to Vivendi Universal"s upcoming War of the Ring, Electronic Arts today announced Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-Earth, a Tolkien-themed RTS from the makers of Command & Conquer: Generals. It"s due for release on PC next summer.
To clarify a common source of confusion, Vivendi"s game is based on the Lord of the Rings novels, whereas EA"s game is based on the movies based on the novels. The former secured its license from Tolkien"s estate, while the later cut a deal with New Line Cinema.
But back to the game, which is based on the engine from Generals, and offers two campaigns. The "good" campaign stars the heroes of Elves and Men, the "evil" campaign lets less benevolent players conquer the world with the armies of Sauron. Both sides feature a variety of forces patterned after characters and concepts from the films, and each campaign covers all the major scenes. EA is even using some of the computer graphics assets created for the movies, as well as clips from both three films for cinematic sequences and voice-overs for the major characters.
Battle for Middle-Earth is a bit further off than EA"s other Tolkien title, November"s Return of the King, so we can look forward to a lengthy build towards its release. Expect to hear more later in the fall.