Modders Rebuild The Battle for Middle-Earth in Unreal
Do you recall The Battle for Middle-Earth games? Just like the Balrog lurking in the depths of the Mines of Moria, the real-time strategy series lay dormant after EA’s The Lord of the Rings licence expired in 2010, leading to the shutdown of its online servers.
Now, a new fan project has arisen, reconstructing The Battle for Middle-Earth in Unreal Engine 4 – and there’s an impressive new teaser video to go along with it.
Judging from the video, it’s evident that a considerable amount of work has already been put in to get The Battle for Middle-Earth up and running in Epic’s game engine. According to the project’s ModDB page, all the original game’s code has been re-written, while the developers are striving to maintain the original gameplay. The emphasis is on multiplayer, but if everything goes smoothly, the developers might create a campaign.
The obvious worry, though, is that the owner of The Lord of the Rings intellectual property will, much like the menacing Eye of Sauron, turn its destructive gaze upon the project and bring it to an end. Warner Bros., which has invested millions of dollars in its own The Lord of the Rings video game series (such as Shadow of Mordor and Shadow of War by Monolith), is likely to have something to say about The Battle for Middle-Earth Reforged – a possibility that the developers are well aware of.
“Yes, we do have some concerns when it comes to Warner Bros. and their potential response,” the team stated, “however, take numerous examples of non-commercial projects like Total War, Skyrim, or other engines. We still have an advantage: Unreal Engine 4 is free for non-commercial projects, meaning anyone can play the game for free!”
“We are not interfering with Warner Brothers’ business – BFME is a strategy, RTS game, and Warners is not developing any game strategy projects. Even if they ask us to halt the project’s development, we will do our utmost to reach an agreement. Perhaps, after realizing how many people desire this game, they could eventually decide to make it themselves.”
It sounds rather optimistic to me, but I wish them all the best!
