While noting that the Kingdom Come: Deliverance studio could be working on their own take on the acclaimed fantasy universe, Crystal Dynamics is allegedly the developer of this particular project. This is according to “those close to the game’s development,” but the studio and the Embracer Group declined to comment.

Apparently meant to compete with Hogwarts Legacy, the project is allegedly being developed with $100 million in funding from Abu Dhabi Investment Office. It’s reportedly a “bit away” as of now (same as last September), even though development has seemingly been ongoing for a while.

Of course, Crystal Dynamics has other projects in the works, such as Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis and Tomb Raider: Catalyst. The former is launching this year and offers a retelling of the series’ first title on Unreal Engine 5. The latter, out next year, takes place years after the events of Tomb Raider: Underworld, and promises to be the franchise’s biggest adventure yet.

Is it possible that the studio ramps up production on The Lord of the Rings RPG after Legacy of Atlantis or perhaps after Catalyst is out? Time will tell, but it would be interesting to see how it tackles Tolkien’s work.

A key thing to note is that, at the time, Embracer Group and Revenge were said to be involved in this project. Warhorse Studios is a subsidiary of PLAION, which in turn is part of the larger Embracer Group umbrella. It also helps that the latter holds the game adaptation rights for The Lord of the Rings since 2022.

The report from back in September has indicated that development is being funded at least partially by the Abu Dhabi Investment Office (ADIO), which has put $100 million into the project. The deal was seemingly in the works for an entire year prior to the report. Embracer Group itself hasn’t yet made any comment on this project, noting that, as “a general rule, we do not comment on rumors or speculation.” The report also indicated that The Lord of the Rings game would primarily “compete with Hogwarts Legacy,” in offering an open-world title based on a major fantasy IP.

If these reports turn out to be true, Warhorse’s take on The Lord of the Rings might end up being the most ambitious game that the franchise has seen. The closest we’ve gotten to anything of this scale with Tolkien’s works was 2007’s MMORPG The Lord of the Rings Online. Since then, adaptations of the franchise have mostly revolved around more focused experiences that revolve around one or two of its aspects.

We’ve seen it adapted into a wide variety of genres, from real-time strategy games like the Battle for Middle-earth franchise, to MOBAs. The 2010s also saw the now-defunct developer Monolith Productions try its hand at open-world The Lord of the Rings titles with Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor and Middle-earth: Shadow of War. While impressive in their own right, especially thanks to the critically-acclaimed Nemesis system, the two titles wouldn’t really be comparable to one made by Warhorse Studios—a studio known for its systems-based approach to game design.

The most recent game based on Tolkien’s work was Tales of the Shire: A The Lord of the Rings Game, which came out in July 2025 on PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S and Nintendo Switch. Rather than presenting players with a grand adventure, however, Tales of the Shire instead focused on the relaxed life of a Hobbit, allowing players to live in the Shire as they made friends and joined the local community.

2023 also saw the release of The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria—a co-op-oriented game that put players in the shoes of four Dwarves who have decided to visit Khazad-dûm in the Fourth Age. In our review, we gave it a five out of ten, praising its set-up, atmosphere, lore and gameplay loop while criticising its unwieldy combat and lackluster animations.

Posting on the KingdomCome subreddit (with mods verifying their identity), “Max H” worked at the studio since July 2022 on the sequel and its DLC. His job was to translate “dialogues, quest logs, item names, and various other things, as well as some occasional marketing materials here and there” from Czech to English.

“Simply put, if you’ve ever played KCD2 in English, you’ve quite likely seen my work.”

However, on March 27th, his position became “obsolete” to “make the company more effective” and “save finances.” Warhorse Studios is seemingly pivoting towards AI for its translations, and while Max didn’t rule it out entirely, “I naively thought my work at WHS was valued enough that I might not be at immediate risk.”

As heartbreaking as it is, he wanted to get the word out about AI, especially as it relates to Warhorse (which generated more than its fair share of revenue off the success of Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2). “The growing use of AI greatly affects people in the games industry and many others, and I thought you should know how much the company that makes the games you love value the work of their employees, not to mention the environment.”

Despite this, he asked that fans not harass anyone from the studio or review bomb its games. “That isn’t my intention at all. All I want is for people to be more informed about what’s going on in the games industry behind closed doors.”

While there’s been extensive pushback against AI over the past several months – the backlash against Nvidia DLSS 5 is one example – it hasn’t stopped companies from pursuing it in some manner. Some games, like Horizon Steel Frontiers, use it extensively for coding and art. Meanwhile, The Expanse: Osiris Reborn uses it for prototypes and placeholders, with the developer assuring that they will be replaced with “100 percent” human-made assets.

How extensively Warhorse intends to dabble with the tech is unseen, but for now, you probably shouldn’t expect the best translations in its next game, whenever that will release.

“I can imagine in the future devs will be able to train this tech for particular art style or specific people faces and it might replace expensive raytracing etc.,” he wrote. “This is just a little uncanny beginning. No way haters will stop this. It’s way more than a soap opera effect every tv has when you turn motion smoothing on.”

It is worth noting that this is far from the first time Vávra has said positive things about AI-based technologies. Back in December, he took to social media to discuss how “AI hysteria” has been getting out of hand in light of at-the-time discussions about the role of generative AI in game development.

“I’m no fan of AI generated art, but anyway, it’s time to face reality,” wrote Vávra. “AI is here to stay with us. As frightening as it may be, that’s the way it is. Personally, it scares me the most in the music because you can’t even recognise AI there anymore.”

Vávra went on to discuss potential use cases of generative AI tools, which have the potential to remove some of the more tedious aspects of game development. He brought up things like having to “spend 500 hours in the studio recording completely generic heckling and generic bars.”

“If AI can help me make an epic game in a year with a smaller team like in the old days, I’m all for it,” he wrote. “That game will still have an art director, writers, programmers, graphic designers, but they won’t have to do the tiresome and boring tasks, they’ll have to focus on the essentials. I have ideas for lots of games, but I’m fifty years old and so far it’s taken me seven years on average to make one game. If AI helps me realize those ideas faster, I’m all for it.”

On the other hand, DLSS 5 has faced criticism from many other game developers. Among these was veteran animator on games like God of War Ragnarök and Death Stranding 2: On the Beach, Mike York, who noted that “this isn’t just some lighting.”

“No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,” he exclaimed while analyzing the Resident Evil Requiem showcase. “No. This isn’t just some lighting, dude. What the f–… I’m telling you, this is like a complete AI re-render.”

“Who even is that? That’s a different girl,” York continued. “You know why I can tell […] – look, her eyes are no longer looking, like, correctly. That one eye is looking over here, and one eye is looking there. And it rendered the eyes differently. And you can also tell that it’s… how do I say this… it has somehow put wrinkles into her lips that weren’t there before… it’s added all kinds of details that were not there before.”

“They’re literally re-rendering this completely, frame by frame. You’re no longer looking at the game anymore, does that make sense? This is scary.”

DLSS 5 is slated for launch later this year for Nvidia GeForce GTX 50-series graphics cards. Take a look at how Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has been defending the technology. Also check out how developers and artists from Capcom and Ubisoft were left in the dark about the showcase.

“Dan has a new role. That’s the creation of the Kingdom Come movie,” said Frývaldský (via machine translation). “I’m sure people will wonder if this is some kind of breakup with Warhorse. No, on the contrary, Dan himself wanted to move on. He made three games that were a global success, and he has been wanting to try something different for a long time.”

Frývaldský went on to note that a film adaptation of Kingdom Come is a major milestone that Warhorse Studios as a whole wants to achieve. He also said that, while Vávra won’t be around in the offices much as part of his new role, he is still a member of the studio.

“Getting Kingdom Come to the screen or the screen in the next few years is another milestone that we want to achieve, and that is Dan’s new role,” he said. “You won’t see him in the office every day anymore, but in a broader sense, he is still part of Warhorse.”

As for progress on the movie’s production, Frývaldský has confirmed that a script has already been written, and Warhorse Studios is currently in talks with production companies.

“Anyone who has played Kingdom Come or even Mafia will know Dan’s handwriting and can expect a strong story again,” he said. “We would have to be blind if we didn’t realize how much our brand has grown. In fact, Dan Vávra’s new position could be called transmedia director. In any case, we see the film as a complement to our game creation, which can be extremely successful in its own right.”

Kingdom Come: Deliverance was originally released on PC, PS4 and Xbox One back in 2018. The title was considered a cult classic at the time, with many appreciating its detailed approach to world building and in-depth gameplay mechanics. Over time, the title would go on to become quite successful, which in turn would lead to the development of its sequel, Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2.

The story of Kingdom Come: Deliverance revolves around a young man named Henry, living in the village of Skalitz. While he lives a simple life as the son of a blacksmith, things take a dark turn when a sudden invasion ends up with the death of everyone he knows and loves. This fateful event leads Henry down the path to uncovering various conspiracies, while he also works hard to try and achieve his late father’s final request—to deliver a sword to Radzig Kobyla.

More recently, Kingdom Come: Deliverance got a current-gen upgrade to bring its visuals up to par to the capabilities of PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. Among other things, it got upgraded visuals, smoother frame rates, and several performance enhancements. As for the sequel, it is available on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. Check out our review for more details.

If you’re keen on a physical edition, that launches on May 15th. As for improvements, the next-gen update offers 4K resolution support, high-resolution textures and an “improved frame rate” (as leaked last month). Based on the trailer provided, there appear to be lighting changes in some places, some looking more natural than others.

Of course, the developer specified other changes and improvements, so hardcore fans will likely learn more by going hands-on. For newcomers on consoles who only experienced Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, this is now the perfect way to experience Henry’s origins.

Kingdom Come: Deliverance launched in 2018, and despite multiple issues, it became a commercial success, having sold over 10 million units to date. It’s also playable on PC and Nintendo Switch. As for Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, Warhorse Studios recently wrapped support on the title, which has sold five million units in its first year. Check out our review for the base game here.

No real details have been revealed about the core subject of the livestream, aside from it simply being a celebration of Kingdom Come: Deliverance. However, the announcement has led many to believe that Warhorse Studio might finally confirm that it is bringing the open-world RPG to modern consoles. A Reddit thread discussing this announcement has noted that the Xbox store listing for Kingdom Come: Deliverance already has the logo for the current-gen Xbox Series X/S. This, they believe, means that a shadow-drop of the original is happening soon.

Rumors about Kingdom Come: Deliverance coming to PS5 and Xbox Series X/S have been going on for quite some time now, especially since Warhorse Studio has wrapped up all of the work on its post-launch expansions for the sequel.

Just last month, a PlayStation Store listing for the title was spotted indicating that it has been “Updated for PlayStation 5”. These updates seemingly include 4K support, high-resolution textures, and smoother frame rates. Unfortunately, the listing didn’t indicate whether it would be a free upgrade for those who already own the title, or if it would be a paid one.

For its part, Warhorse Studios has largely stayed quiet about its plans for the future. Following the release of the Mysteria Ecclesiae DLC for Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 back in November, however, Jirsa had said that the studio has been working on “something new on the horizon”. Unfortunately, however, he didn’t reveal any more details.

Jirsa had also previously spoken about the development of Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, and how the studio had to stand its ground against negative feedback from playtests. He noted that a major complaint was the feeling of weakness among the players, which was an intentional design decision.

“We had playtests where some players started a game, did something wrong, immediately got arrested, and gave negative feedback,” he said. “We had the strength to say, ‘Yes, that’s what we want.’” Jirsa went on to note that players feeling weak was an intentional design decision, since it would further improve the sense of accomplishments when they got stronger. “We want the player at the beginning to feel extremely weak,” he explained, “because then the validation of gaining strength feels earned.”

Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 is available on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. The first game, on the other hand, is available on PC, PS4 and Xbox One. Current-gen console players can check out the older open-world RPG thanks to backwards compatibility support. However, a port to modern consoles would likely help quite a bit with smoothing out performance issues faced by the older consoles.

The post is a the latest iteration of the Xbox Excellence Awards, which was created last year to celebrate how players engaged with various releases on Xbox. The Store Rating category lists 2025 games with the best ratings on the Microsoft Store, with an added requirement of the title having at least 500 ratings. Player Engagements is about the average number of hours spent on a game by each player within the first six weeks of a game’s release. Daily Active Users celebrates titles, expansions or updates with the highest single-day active users throughout the year. And finally Units Sold is fairly self-explanatory.

Going down the lists, you’ll find many of the biggest releases of the year, from ARC Raiders and Battlefield 6, as well as award-winning RPG Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. Indie titles have also been well-represented, with games like Crime Scene Cleaner and Satisfactory making it into the lists. There also doesn’t seem to have been a singular genre to dominate the lists, since everything from sports games like EA Sports Madden NFL 26, to fantasy adventure life sims like Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time, and even fighting games like Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics are well represented.

Curiously, none of the games was present in all four of the categories. At most, we got to see titles like Borderlands 4 being able to make it on to three of them: Player Engagement, Daily Active Users and Units Sold. Even ARC Raiders, which has seen quite a bit of success, is only on the Units Sold and Daily Active Users lists.

Microsoft has also emphasized that the lists represent a diverse collection of games developed by studios of varying sizes. All in all, it represents 48 unique developers based out of 13 countries, with 24 publishers having had a hand in their release. 19 of the games were self-published. “Taken as a whole, it’s an encapsulation of development on Xbox – we want gaming to reach you wherever you are, and for the teams making those games to find you from wherever they are,” wrote the company.

Full list of games:

Store Rating:

• Call of Duty: Black Ops 7
• Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
• Crime Scene Cleaner
• Demon Slayer -Kimetsu no Yaiba- The Hinokami Chronicles 2
• Digimon Story: Time Stranger
• Dreamcore
• Dynasty Warriors: Origins
• Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time
• Final Fantasy XVI
• Lies of P: Overture
• Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii
• Little Nightmares III
• Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics
• Minami Lane
• Mullet MadJack
• Poppy Playtime Chapter 4
• Satisfactory
• Silent Hill 2
• Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds
• The First Berserker: Khazan

Player Engagement:

• Borderlands 4
• Digimon Story: Time Stranger
• Dynasty Warriors: Origins
• EA Sports College Football 26
• EA Sports FC 26
• Elden Ring Nightreign
• Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time
• Farm Together 2
• Final Fantasy Tactics – The Ivalice Chronicles
• Helldivers 2
• Inazuma Eleven: Victory Road
• Kingdom Come: Deliverance II
• Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii
• MLB The Show 25
• Monster Hunter Wilds
• NBA 2K26
• NHL 26
• Rust
• Satisfactory
• The First Berserker: Khazan

Daily Active Users:

• Arc Raiders
• Avowed
• Battlefield 6
• Borderlands 4
• Call of Duty: Black Ops 7
• DOOM: The Dark Ages
• Elden Ring Nightreign
• Fortnite
• Forza Horizon 5
• Grand Theft Auto V
• Grounded 2
• Helldivers 2
• Marvel Rivals
• Minecraft
• NBA 2K26
• Rematch
• Roblox
• Rocket League
• The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered
• Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege

Units Sold:

• Arc Raiders
• Assassin’s Creed Shadows
• Battlefield 6
• Borderlands 4
• Call of Duty: Black Ops 7
• EA Sports Madden NFL 26
• EA Sports College Football 26
• EA Sports FC 26
• Elden Ring Nightreign
• Grand Theft Auto V
• Helldivers 2
• Hollow Knight: Silksong
• Kingdom Come: Deliverance II
• MLB The Show 25
• Monster Hunter Wilds
• NBA 2K26
• PGA Tour 2K25
• Ready or Not
• The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered
• WWE 2K25

“Five million Henrys are now adventuring in Bohemia! Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 has officially reached this massive milestone and it is all thanks to you. Our community is growing every single day and we couldn’t be more excited to have you with us. Thank you for making this journey unforgettable,” wrote the studio.

The previous milestone was hit just a few days after the release of the final planned expansion for Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, dubbed Mysteria Ecclesiae. With the DLC marking the end of the game’s expansion pass, no new content has been announced for the game.

Following the release of Mysteria Ecclesiae, Warhorse Studios packaged the game and all of its expansions up to release it as Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 – Royal Edition. Priced at $79.99 on PC and $89.99 on PS5 and Xbox Series X/S, the Royal Edition is essentially the ultimate way to pick up the open-world RPG.

In the months since, Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2‘s lead designer Prokop Jirsa revealed that the studio had to stand its ground against negative feedback during playtests. He noted that quite a bit of the feedback revolved around some of the more esoteric aspects of the RPG’s gameplay, and how the players felt quite weak at the beginning.

“We had playtests where some players started a game, did something wrong, immediately got arrested, and gave negative feedback,” said Jirsa. “We had the strength to say, ‘Yes, that’s what we want.’” Jirsa went on to note that players feeling weak was an intentional design decision, since it would further improve the sense of accomplishments when they got stronger. “We want the player at the beginning to feel extremely weak,” he explained, “because then the validation of gaining strength feels earned.”

Jirsa also revealed that the success of FromSoftware’s games encouraged the studio by showing the world that players wouldn’t shy away from challenging games. “I honestly believe there’s big potential for original ideas that, if they were given a chance to be polished, could reach mainstream,” he said.

More recently, Warhorse Studios also seems to be working on bringing the original Kingdom Come: Deliverance to modern platforms. In January, a PlayStation Store listing for the RPG was spotted with “Updated for PlayStation 5” being noted in its description. Among the new features for the game are support for 4K displays and high-resolution textures, and improved frame rates. Warhorse Studios, however, hasn’t yet made any official announcement about current-gen enhancements, remasters or ports being in the works.

Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 is available on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. For more details, check out our review of the base game, as well as its expansions – Brushes With Death, Legacy of the Forge, and Mysteria Ecclesiae.

It offers 4K support, high-resolution textures, and an improved frame rate. It’s currently unclear if those who own the PS4 version can access this update, but it lends further credence to rumors about an upcoming remaster. For its part, Warhorse Studios hasn’t really acknowledged the same, simply teasing “something new on the horizon” after the final DLC for Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2.

Besides director Daniel Vávra rushing to the defense of Larian Studios in the wake of Divinity’s GenAI controversy, claiming it’s “here to stay,” the development hasn’t offered any further updates on its future. With State of Play rumored for February, perhaps this PS5 update will be a shadow drop alongside other versions then. It’s allegedly taking place in the week of February 12th, so stay tuned for more details.

As for Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, it’s available for Xbox Series X/S, PS5, and PC. Since launching in February 2025, it’s received extensive critical acclaim (and more than a few Game of the Year nominations) while selling four million copies as of last November. You can check out our review here for more details.