War in the North Legacy Edition Arrives, More LOTR Ports Promised

A Forgotten Fellowship Gets a Second Chance

Tucked somewhere between the massive Shadow of Mordor era and the early Peter Jackson film tie-ins, there was a scrappier, stranger Lord of the Rings game. The Lord of the Rings: War in the North launched in November 2011 from Snowblind Studios, published by Warner Bros Interactive, and it told what it called the brutal, untold story of Agandaur, a Black Numenorean and servant of Sauron who had rallied a massive force in the ruins of Fornost. It was weird and violent and kind of great, and then it quietly disappeared.

Fifteen years later, Aspyr has brought it back. The Lord of the Rings: War in the North Legacy Edition is out now on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch 2, the original Switch, and PC, priced at $19.99. Aspyr handled both development and publication of the new version, under licence from Warner Bros, as reported by Video Games Chronicle.

What the Legacy Edition Actually Changes

Aspyr has not simply dusted off the original code and called it a day. The Legacy Edition ships with several additions tailored to modern play habits. Most platforms get 60 frames per second support, with the original Switch sitting that one out. There is a new enemy lock-on system, auto saves, and additional save slots. The AI received attention too, with visible health, mana, and experience bars now displayed during combat.

The co-op, which was always one of the game’s stronger selling points, is intact. Two players can run local split-screen together, again with the original Switch excluded from that feature, and up to three players can team up online.

Aspyr Is Treating This as the Start of Something

The more interesting part of the announcement might be what comes next. Aspyr refers to War in the North as its “first The Lord of the Rings” title, and the studio says that “fans can look forward to even more classic releases by Aspyr from the beloved franchise in the future.” No specific games are named.

The candidates are worth thinking about. Warner Bros Interactive published several Lord of the Rings games around the same period, including Guardians of Middle-earth, the multiplayer online battle arena that shut down years ago, and Aragorn’s Quest. Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, the open-world hit from 2014, also falls under the Warner Bros umbrella. Whether any of those are in Aspyr’s pipeline is unknown.

There is also a thornier question around the older Electronic Arts catalog. EA published a run of Lord of the Rings games tied directly to the Jackson films in the early 2000s, including The Two Towers and The Return of the King, which were beloved by an entire generation of players. Whether Aspyr has or can obtain the rights to port those titles is not yet clear, according to VGC.

The Embracer Angle

Aspyr is owned by Embracer Group, which also owns Middle-earth Enterprises. That company holds the worldwide exclusive rights to certain elements of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit properties, including character names, place names, objects, and events. That ownership structure puts Aspyr in a fairly unique position to pursue this kind of catalog work, though the licensing maze around different publishers and different eras of Lord of the Rings games is genuinely complicated.

For now, War in the North is back and reasonably priced. It was always an underrated game, built around a corner of Middle-earth the films only brushed past. At twenty dollars, with co-op baked in, it is an easy recommendation for anyone who missed it the first time around and a nostalgic pull for those who did not.