Whether Warhorse maintains its signature careful immersion or abandons it entirely
A small Czech studio that spent years perfecting the art of grounded, patient storytelling now stands at the edge of one of fiction's most expansive mythologies. Warhorse Studios, emboldened by the remarkable success of Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, is rumored to be turning toward Middle-earth with a $100 million open-world RPG — a leap that raises timeless questions about what happens when intimate craft meets monumental ambition. The story is still unconfirmed, but the possibility alone invites reflection on how creative identity survives transformation at scale.
- A veteran Polish developer with CD Projekt Red ties has dropped a rumor that could reshape the RPG landscape: Warhorse Studios is allegedly building a Lord of the Rings open-world game with a $100 million budget.
- The stakes are unusually high — this would more than double the cost of Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, a game that sold five million copies and nearly won Game of the Year, meaning Warhorse would be gambling its hard-won credibility on uncharted creative territory.
- Embracer Group's appetite for major IP acquisitions gives the rumor structural logic, but the Lord of the Rings license has sat largely dormant in gaming for over a decade, making any revival both an opportunity and a pressure test.
- The central tension isn't budget or IP — it's philosophy: Warhorse built its reputation on slow, immersive, historically grounded design, and no one yet knows whether that sensibility can survive contact with Tolkien's sweeping, mythic world.
- For now the project remains unconfirmed, but the industry is watching closely, aware that the answer to 'can Warhorse do this?' will define the studio's identity for years to come.
Warhorse Studios, the Czech developer behind the Kingdom Come: Deliverance series, may be preparing one of the most audacious pivots in recent gaming history. According to Ryszard Chojnowski, a Polish developer with ties to CD Projekt Red, the studio is in early development on a Lord of the Rings open-world RPG with a budget nearing $100 million.
The timing is striking. Warhorse has released only two games since its 2011 founding, but its 2025 sequel became a genuine phenomenon — a million copies sold on day one, five million total, an 89 on Metacritic, and a Game of the Year nomination. After years of patient world-building, the studio finally had the industry's full attention.
If the rumor holds, Warhorse would now walk away from that world entirely. The reported budget would more than double what was spent on Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, signaling not just ambition but a fundamental rethinking of the studio's ceiling. The shift from grounded medieval fiction to Tolkien's high fantasy represents a genre transformation as much as a creative one — and it fits neatly within Embracer Group's aggressive strategy of acquiring major IP and pairing it with proven studios.
The deeper question is one of identity. Warhorse's games are defined by their patience: historical texture, deliberate pacing, systems that reward careful observation over action. Whether that philosophy can survive — or even thrive — inside Middle-earth's vast mythological canvas is what will ultimately determine whether this project becomes a landmark achievement or a warning about the cost of overreach. For now, it remains a rumor, but one that hints at a next chapter unlike anything the studio has attempted before.
Warhorse Studios, the Czech developer behind the Kingdom Come: Deliverance games, may be about to make one of the industry's boldest creative leaps. According to a recent claim from Ryszard Chojnowski, a veteran Polish game developer with ties to CD Projekt Red, the studio is in early development on a Lord of the Rings open-world RPG with a budget approaching $100 million.
The rumor arrives at a peculiar moment in Warhorse's trajectory. Since its founding in 2011, the studio has released exactly two games: the 2018 medieval RPG Kingdom Come: Deliverance, which found an audience but remained something of a cult success, and its 2025 sequel, which became a phenomenon. Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 sold a million copies on its first day and has reached five million total sales. It scored an 89 on Metacritic and landed among the six finalists for Game of the Year at last year's awards ceremony. For a studio that had spent years building a single world, the sequel's reception vindicated everything they'd been working toward.
Now, if Chojnowski's account holds water, Warhorse is preparing to walk away from that world entirely. The reported $100 million budget would more than double what the studio spent on Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, which cost roughly $40 million to produce. That kind of investment signals not just ambition but a fundamental recalibration of what Warhorse believes it can accomplish. The jump from medieval immersion to high fantasy, from a fictional Eastern European kingdom to Tolkien's Middle-earth, represents a genre shift as much as a creative one.
The move makes sense within the broader context of Embracer Group, the Swedish holding company that owns Warhorse. Embracer has been aggressive in acquiring major IP and studios, and a Lord of the Rings game from a developer riding the momentum of critical and commercial success would fit neatly into that portfolio. The franchise itself has proven its gaming potential before—though the last major Lord of the Rings game of note was released over a decade ago, leaving the license relatively dormant in interactive media.
What remains genuinely uncertain is how Warhorse would translate its signature approach to a project of this scale and scope. The Kingdom Come games are defined by their commitment to grounded immersion: historical accuracy, careful pacing, systems that reward patience and observation over reflexive action. They're games that trust the player to move slowly through a world. Whether that philosophy survives the leap to Middle-earth—whether Warhorse would attempt to bring that same meticulous, contemplative design to Tolkien's vast landscapes—is the question that will determine whether this project becomes a landmark or a cautionary tale. For now, it remains a rumor, but one that suggests the studio's next chapter could be unlike anything it has attempted before.
Citações Notáveis
Kingdom Come 2 developers, Warhorse Studios, are reportedly working on a huge $100 million Lord of the Rings game. This would be a massive shift from their historical roots but fits perfectly within the Embracer Group's portfolio.— Ryszard Chojnowski, game developer
A Conversa do Hearth Outra perspectiva sobre a história
So Warhorse has spent fifteen years building expertise in one very specific thing—medieval immersion—and now they're supposedly abandoning it entirely for Lord of the Rings. Why would they do that?
Because they've proven they can do it at the highest level, and that success gives them leverage. When Kingdom Come 2 hit five million copies and made Game of the Year conversations, they suddenly had credibility and resources they didn't have before. The question becomes: do you keep making the same game, or do you swing for something bigger?
But $100 million is a massive bet. That's not just bigger—that's a different category of risk entirely.
It is. But consider what Embracer Group sees: a studio that just delivered a critical and commercial hit, now asking for resources to make a high-fantasy game set in one of the most valuable IP franchises in the world. From a business perspective, that's not reckless. It's strategic.
The thing I keep wondering about is whether their whole identity—that careful, grounded feeling—actually works in Middle-earth. Tolkien's world is mythic. Kingdom Come is intimate.
That's the real gamble. They could try to bring that immersive, patient design philosophy into a fantasy setting, which would be genuinely novel. Or they could abandon it entirely and make something that looks and plays like every other big-budget action RPG. One path is interesting. The other is just expensive.
And we don't know which one they're choosing.
Not yet. But the budget tells you they're thinking big. Whether that means ambitious or just costly—that's what we're waiting to find out.