There’s a free-to-play Lord of the Rings MMORPG on its way

Athlon Games, the publisher of Warframe, has revealed that they are teaming up with Middle-earth Enterprises to create a free-to-play MMORPG set in The Lord of the Rings universe.

The announcement was made in a publicly available business update and as such does not contain many details about the game itself. Although Athlon is certainly helping to solidify themselves as a big player in the free-to-play, online market. Warframe has seen a huge amount of success since launch, thanks partly to its high quality standards but also thanks to a great business model that players were happy to engage in. If Athlon can maintain that quality and a similarly friendly funding model then this new game will be in safe hands.

“With our technical know-how and expertise in free-to-play game development and publishing… the Board believes that the development and publishing of this new title based on The Lord of the Rings will help further the Group’s goal of creating top quality console and PC games that have global appeal and expand the Group’s footprint in the West.”

The game itself is set to take place during the years leading up to the events of The Lord of the Rings. So whilst it may be set in the same universe, it appears that it will be telling a new story (probably). Unfortunately that’s all we know for now. The game is likely still quite some time away from release, but it will certainly be one that stays on our radar.