The studio is responsible for the known Star Wars: Battlefront series, so there could be something good coming out of all this:

“We’ve got every single battle from the movies and then some. We’ve got Helm’s Deep, Pelennor Fields, Minas Tirith, The Black Gates, and then we’ve got a bunch of other cool stuff like the Mines of Moria. Weathertop, The Shire. We’ve got a whole level where you get to play as the evil guys, running through The Shire, trampling Hobbits and burning the place to the ground.”

Besides leading the forces of good against the tyranny of evil, the game is also aimed at enabling player to take control of the dark side. Pandemic promises to put all the bad guys on the playable list, including the Balrog, Sauron and Saruman

LotR fans will be happy, while others will just look  the other way. Remember folks, we’re talking about Electronic Arts (the owner of Pandemic) here, so don’t expect Lord of the Rings: Conquest to feature too much originality.