New Lord of the Rings Game Teased

A new Lord of the Rings board game could be on the way soon. Last week, the French Facebook account of board game maker Asmodee showed off a piece of artwork featuring Gollum from Lord of the Rings, with subsidiary Repos Production tagged in the post. The promotional image also referenced Antoine Bauza and Bruno Cathala, two well-known board game designers responsible for some of the biggest hits of the last 20 years, including their collaboration 7 Wonders Duel. The implication is that Repo Productions is developing a new Lord of the Rings board game, one that should be announced in the not-too-distant future. 

Currently, Asmodee is owned by Embracer Group, a conglomerate of game companies that also owns the media rights to The Lord of the Rings. It was expected that Asmodee would be developing new board games based on The Lord of the Rings soon, although the timing of the announcement is curious as Embracer announced that it would be splitting into three parts in the next 12 months, with Asmodee spun off into one company while the rights to The Lord of the Rings would be in the hands of another company focused on AAA video games. Collaboration between Asmodee and the new company (called Middle-Earth Enterprises and Friends) was expected, and this new game could be a hint of things to come. 

While Asmodee is (currently) part of the conglomerate that owns the rights to The Lord of the Rings, it doesn’t have a particularly long list of games. Fantasy Flight Games has developed several Lord of the Rings games, including a campaign-based game and a living card game, but other games have come few and far in-between.