Good news for once. Aspyr seems to have been able to relicense, develop and self-publish "The Lord of the Rings: War in the North" to rerelease it as "The Lord of the Rings: War in the North - Legacy Edition". It was re-released on August 11, 2026 on Steam, GOG, EGS, PlayStation 5, XBOX Series S|X and Switch 1 & Switch 2 (although a European Nintendo release is gonna follow on October 18th, 2026 for reasons unknown, can confirm myself that it isn't available yet on Switch 1 and 2 in Europe).

How is this possible?

The original was developed by Snowblind Studios (merged into Monolith production in 2012, which Warner Bros closed down in 2025) and published by Warner Bros. It released originally in November 2011 and was delisted on February 13, 2019, likely due to LOTR licensing expiration. Embracer Group (owners of Aspyr) acquired the LOTR literary works IP rights in August 2022 by acquiring Middle-earth Enterprises, which also owns the War in the North IP rights. Aspyr/Embracer likely then had to buy/license the publishing and code rights from Warner Bros to make this all possible.

Aspyr said they are planning to re-release more LOTR games in the future.

Changes known so far compared to the original release

Aspyr didn't note down any changes made for this re-release, so let's dig into it ourselves from public information that is available as I don't own the game myself. Changes I've noted so far:

• Game is now 64-bit instead of the previous version still having been 32-bit. This allows the game to use more RAM to avoid slowdowns and crashes.
  • Also entails upgrades of internally used libraries, like Bink Video. This likely brings additional bugfixes and performance improvements.
• Game uses Epic Online Services now for online multiplayer functionality.
• The install size is twice as large as the original game.
  • Bik Video files of cinematics (opening logos, intro, outro, main menu background etc.) are significantly larger in size
    • Compressed with much newer Bink v2024.4.0 and Bink v2025.5 (varies a bit per file), and of Bink format 2.8.
    • Cinematics are now encoded at full 4K resolution (according to RAD Video Tools). Don't own the original version to compare in detail.
    • Looking at the cinematics closely with RAD Video Tools, I think I'm seeing artifacts and oversharpening that might be hinting strongly on that these video files might have been AI-upscaled instead of natively re-rendered.
  • Unknown whether in-game art was also touched up. Not that intimately familiar with the old version to make conclusions on that front. Aspyr said nothing about this so far.
• The renderer got upgrade from D3D9 to D3D12, likely for improved performance and compatibility with modern hardware.
• Extra notes:
  • Nothing there to indicate Unreal engine usage as the files of the game strongly indicates it is still using the original's Snowblind Engine/Dark Alliance Engine.
  • The main executable is only 12 MB of size, so no Denuvo DRM either of course, as it also released on GOG.
  • Same 120 FPS cap as the original had.
    • Not dependent on Vsync as forcing Vsync off, keeps the FPS limit intact.
    • Performance seems to be excellent.
• Noted issues:
  • Camera motion speed is tied to the FPS (reported this to Aspyr already)
    • Higher FPS = slower camera speed
    • Lower FPS = faster camera speed
  • Setting non-native resolutions in fullscreen mode that do not adhere to your own monitor's aspect ratio, like 800x600 resolution on a 2560x1440 resolution monitor, causes the image to be stretched instead of native image with black borders. (also reported to Aspyr)
  • Borderless mode acts as borderless windowed mode instead of borderless fullscreen, causing it to display as a much smaller window when you set the resolution to something non-native. (also reported this to Aspyr)
  • No Vsync toggle of any kind. Suspicion of either forced Vsync or no Vsync support at all.
    • Cannot find out for certain due to the game's configuration files being encrypted.
  • Text fonts seem to be still of quite lower quality and are visibly of lower resolution. Looks a bit unsharp.