The Middle-earth Games XBOX Players Want Made Backward Compatible
A measurement, not a petition.
XBOXGamePreservation.com asks players a single question: which Original XBOX and XBOX 360 games do you want to be able to play again via backward compatibility on modern XBOX consoles? This page looks at every Middle-earth licensed game released on Original XBOX and XBOX 360.
What is XBOX backward compatibility?
It's the program in which Original XBOX and XBOX 360 titles are given the green light by publishers and rights holders to let XBOX make them playable, and often buyable, again on current XBOX consoles. For rights holders, the key requirement is approval. XBOX handles the technical work required to bring supported titles to modern consoles.
In July 2026, that program expanded to PC: the same approval that brings an Original XBOX game to modern consoles can now also make it playable on PC, with XBOX doing the technical work. That expansion currently covers Original XBOX titles, so of the Middle-earth games measured here, the five Original XBOX releases would be eligible. Two of them, The Two Towers and The Third Age, never had a PC version in their day, marked ▸ PC debut throughout this page, so approval could bring them to PC for the first time.
Eleven games, and who published each.
The whole of the not-yet-backward-compatible Middle-earth catalog on the site, eleven games drawing 8,842 votes, ordered by demand. Electronic Arts holds most of it, the legacy of carrying the license through the peak film years, with Warner Bros. and Sierra behind. The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit games, multiple publishers, a common rights foundation.
Lego The Lord of the Rings is already backward compatible and is counted separately, at the end.
The film-era classics are the core of the demand.
The clear center of gravity is the run of games built on the New Line films, published by Electronic Arts and led by the two hack-and-slash adaptations, The Return of the King (1,915) and The Two Towers (1,589), still among the most fondly remembered movie tie-ins ever made. Those two alone draw 3,504 votes, nearly 40% of all Middle-earth demand on the site. Around them sit The Third Age (971), the turn-based RPG, Conquest (1,201), and the console version of The Battle for Middle-earth II (796). Together EA's five games are 6,472 votes, about 73% of the demand on this page.
Where the Middle-earth rights actually sit.
Middle-earth Enterprises holds the worldwide film, video game, merchandising and stage rights to both The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. Middle-earth Enterprises was acquired by Embracer Group in 2022 and is now part of Fellowship Entertainment, the operating segment being prepared for a planned 2027 spin-off.
That underlying ownership is common to every game here, but it isn't the whole picture. The movie-based games were made under New Line Cinema's film license, now held by Warner Bros. So a title like The Two Towers or The Return of the King likely sits behind both the film-rights holder and Middle-earth Enterprises, on top of its publisher. The book-based games were licensed more directly. To the best of my knowledge these are all licensed works rather than owned ones, and which parties would need to approve a return varies by title; I can't speak to the specific terms of any individual agreement.
A vote for the XBOX 360 version even when a newer console version exists is intentional.
A few of these games have modern counterparts. War in the North was just remastered; Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor and Lego The Hobbit both had XBOX One releases. Those versions are outside the scope of this site, which tracks Original XBOX and XBOX 360 titles, so every vote here is specifically for the older release.
Different versions of a game are different things to preserve. Players may have concrete reasons to want the XBOX 360 version even alongside a newer release, including its version-specific XBOX achievement list and the fact that it represents the version they originally owned and played.
One Middle-earth game is already backward compatible, but can't be purchased.
Lego The Lord of the Rings (577 votes) is already backward compatible on modern XBOX consoles, so it sits outside the demand totals above. But it cannot be purchased digitally: you can play it only if you already own it.
The demand is concentrated, and it points at one publisher.
The 8,842 votes come from 3,613 players, about 2.5 votes each, so this is broad interest across the catalog rather than demand for a single game. And that interest is heavily concentrated: the single most impactful move would be the return of the Electronic Arts movie-era games, The Return of the King and The Two Towers above all.
Every title on the page is licensed, which can apply friction for backward compatibility. Here the licensing is at least coherent: the underlying property traces back to Middle-earth Enterprises, with the movie games also tied to the New Line, now Warner Bros., film license. And the timing is notable. With War in the North back on modern platforms in August 2026 and its developer, Aspyr, signaling more Middle-earth revivals to come, the willingness to return to this catalog is already visible.
Remasters and backward compatibility need not be either-or. A full remaster of a catalog this size could take years and might not reach every title, so backward compatibility could complement that work, potentially returning some games sooner while others wait for a larger effort. I can't speak to any publisher's plans, but the votes here are a map of where players would most like either path to go next.
Method and caveats.
Every figure here is a direct count from the site's public vote data, filtered to games set in Middle-earth, The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, released on Original XBOX and XBOX 360. Games are never combined across platforms: each release on each console is counted on its own. A title already backward compatible, Lego The Lord of the Rings, is set aside and counted separately, not folded into the demand totals.
Publisher and rights notes were checked title by title. "Licensed" means the publisher released the game but the underlying property, Middle-earth itself, is held by someone else, in this case Middle-earth Enterprises, now under Fellowship Entertainment. Vote counts measure interest, not a commitment to buy, and feasibility depends on agreements between publishers and the licensor that are not public.
Every Middle-earth game on the site, by publisher.
All 12 Middle-earth games behind the figures on this page, grouped by publisher, with platform and vote count. The one already-backward-compatible title is listed last, apart from the demand totals.
Every Lord of the Rings and Hobbit game on the site, excluding titles already backward compatible, which are counted separately. Games are attributed to their publishers and to Middle-earth Enterprises to the best of my knowledge from public information; the specific terms of the underlying license agreements are not public and may have lapsed.