The developer of Lord of the Rings: War in the North literally begged WB Games not to release the game a week before Skyrim's release, but they weren't listened to

Lord of the Rings: War in the North is suddenly back in the spotlight – the Legacy Edition remaster has picked up a warm welcome on Steam and a "Very Positive" rating. The original 2011 release, though, barely registered with players despite having one of gaming most iconic franchises in its title, and now we know at least part of the reason why.

Christian Allen, former design director at WB Games Seattle and current design director on Project Zomboid, responded to the remaster reveal by sharing some behind-the-scenes history on why the original launch flopped. He says he personally pushed to get the publisher to change the release date, but nobody listened.

Wow this is cool. 15 years ago I argued vociferously not to release this up against Skyrim, as it wouldn't get a fair shake. I got overruled. Nice to see it get a proper release.

The problem was very real: War in the North launched on November 1, 2011, just 10 days before The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim. Given how massive a cultural phenomenon Bethesda game turned out to be, launching right next to it was basically a death sentence for a less-hyped Tolkien title.

In follow-up replies, Allen added that beyond the bad timing, thin marketing support from the publisher didn't help either. He said WB Games either "wrote it off" from the start, or naively assumed "hardcore LOTR fans would just know about it, somehow." Turns out even the Lord of the Rings name doesn't sell itself without a real promotional push behind it.

The original developer studio didn't fare much better afterward. Not long after the disappointing launch, Snowblind Studios was folded into Monolith Productions in 2012. Several former Snowblind staffers went on to work on Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor – a game Allen himself oversaw as design director at WB Games.

After the 2017 sequel Shadow of War and years spent developing a Wonder Woman game, Monolith was ultimately shut down by Warner Bros. in 2025 as part of a "strategic change."

Looking back on the whole thing, Allen chalks up War in the North failure to short-term corporate thinking focused on quarterly numbers rather than long-term success.

Quarterly revenue motivations drive more decisions than people realize. It's a big challenge with stock-price driven organizations. Must be hard to be an exec and go, "Well, this game will do better if we hold it until March, but my bonus will take a 50% hit." 🤷

Seems like the games industry today hasn't drifted as far from old habits as it might feel.