EA also dropped the free-to-play mobile game’s first real trailer.
EA will release the mobile free-to-play Lord of the Rings: Heroes of Middle-earth on May 10th, marking its first LOTR game since 2009’s The Lord of the Rings: Conquest. It also unveiled the first real trailer, showing gameplay, menus and more. It’s one of five LOTR games currently in development from Embracer (which bought the rights last year), including the much anticipated Lord of the Rings: Gollum set to arrive shortly afterwards.
The trailer features a “stylized realism art style,” EA wrote, leaning into existing lore with wanderers, warriors, wizards and other classic LOTR characters. AT the same time, it creates “a more diverse and inclusive Middle-earth,” the company said, while showing off Story, PVP and other gameplay modes.
Heroes of Middle-earth includes characters from both The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, along with collection systems, turn-based combat and more. In a previous news release, EA said that players will experience “iconic stories from the world of Tolkien and take up the fight against the great evils of Middle-earth.” Given the free-to-play aspect, there are of course microtransactions.
Heroes of Middle-earth is set to arrive on iOS and Android on May 10th, with pre-registration now open. Meanwhile, Lord of the Rings: Gollum will launch on consoles and PC May 25th, and Embracer reportedly has three additional titles in development for the next two years.