Lord of the Rings: War in the North Dev Warned Warner Bros. Against Skyrim Clash in 2011

Cast your mind back to November 2011, and two major fantasy games based on established IPs hit shelves almost simultaneously: Bethesda's The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, which went on to sell over 65 million copies, and Snowblind Studios' The Lord of the Rings: War in the North, which flopped commercially.

In hindsight, it was probably unwise for Warner Bros. to launch The Lord of the Rings: War in the North in the same week as Skyrim, given the massive hype surrounding Bethesda's behemoth. But that's exactly what Warner Bros. did — despite, it seems, the advice of at least one high-ranking developer on its roster.

Christian Allen, who was design director on the WB Games Seattle leadership team at the time, working on titles like Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor, Mad Max, and F.E.A.R. 2: Reborn, noticed this week's surprise re-release of The Lord of the Rings: War in the North by Aspyr on PC and console, and it triggered a wave of nostalgia.

In a series of tweets, Allen revealed that he tried to convince Warner Bros. execs to avoid going head-to-head with Skyrim for obvious reasons, but he was “overruled.”

“Wow, this is cool,” he began. “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.”

Why did Warner Bros. make such an obviously risky decision? Allen provided some insight: “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.’”

Allen went on to discuss how Skyrim overshadowed Snowblind's game. “At the time it really seemed to get lost in the wash, and every review just compared it to Skyrim (as I predicted they would),” he said.

“I think it only got like one review the week it launched,” he continued. “IIRC there was hardly any marketing, either they wrote it off or thought hardcore LOTR fans would just know about it, somehow.”

Following the failure of The Lord of the Rings: War in the North, Snowblind was merged with Monolith Productions, which later released Gotham City Impostors, Guardians of Middle-earth, and the critically acclaimed Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor and Middle-earth: Shadow of War.

Last year, Warner Bros. shut down Monolith, having canceled its Wonder Woman video game. Allen is now design director on the Steam hit Project Zomboid.