EA confirms BFME II expansion

  • By Patrick Caldwell, GameSpot
  • Posted Jul 26, 2006 4:12 pm PT

[UPDATE] EA officially seals the game today after community manager confirmed The Rise of the Witch-king expansion on forum; game headed to the PC, but no mention of Xbox 360.

The Lord of the Rings, The Battle for Middle-earth II, The Rise of the Witch-King

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An Electronic Arts employee has confirmed a rumor that the company is making an expansion-pack follow-up to The Battle for Middle-earth II--and that EA had unveiled it at the recently ended 2006 San Diego Comic-Con.

Two days ago, a forum post on Gamereplays.org cited a report from someone claiming to have been present at EA's Comic-Con presentation, where the company apparently unwrapped an expanion pack to its recently released strategy game The Lord of the Rings, The Battle for Middle-earth II. The report pegged the add-on's title to be "The Life of the Witch-king."

But before reader comments could spiral out of control, Electronic Arts community manager and developer Aaron Kaufman intervened to clear up the confusion.

Under his well-known alias EA Apoc, Kaufman said that EA did show off the expansion pack at last week's Comic-Con in San Diego, and the company will have more details to share "later this week." The original report also got the new game's name wrong: "The official title is called 'The Rise of the Witch-king,'" the developer added.

The game's title refers to the Witch-king, the leader of the ringwraiths that led the assault on Minas Tirith during the climactic battle in The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.

Other details about the game's platforms and distribution methods, however, are unknown. The original message-board report recalls EA's displaying the expansion pack on the PC but does not mention an Xbox 360 version.

Lately, numerous content updates to 360 titles, such as The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter, have been distributed digitally over Xbox Live Marketplace. But it is unclear whether the new Battle for Middle-earth II expansion will be digitally distributed or sold at retail--if it comes to the Xbox 360 at all.

EA representatives contacted yesterday had not responded to a request for comment as of press time.

[UPDATE] Electronic Arts today officially announced the existence of the game, whose name echoes what EA developer Aaron Kaufman revealed three days ago, but noted that the game's name is a "working title." The Rise of the Witch-king expanion pack will come to PCs this holiday season--but again the company made no mention of a possible Xbox 360 version.

New gameplay features include another single-player campaign, which revolves around the ascension of The Lord of the Rings movies' Witch-king, and the Angmar faction, available for play in the skirmish, multiplayer, and War of the Ring game types.

59 Comments

  • echuu9393

    Posted Oct 15, 2007 7:02 pm PT

    Why wouldn't they make it for the 360, it would do well and I would enjoy it for I have a mac not a PC.

  • ukillwegrill

    Posted Jul 28, 2007 6:38 am PT

    i read in 360 gamer thats the expansion was due for a marketplace release aroun june but obviously that has happened

  • chrismouth07

    Posted Jan 29, 2007 8:00 pm PT

    all i want to know is if they are going to make this expansion pack is going to be for the xbox 360

  • Filimonki

    Posted Nov 15, 2006 6:34 am PT

    When Does it come out?
    Im not sure if i`ll buy it, depends when it come out.

  • black_arrow_333

    Posted Sep 22, 2006 7:52 pm PT

    I hope this exspansion is not stupid like the BFME 2 because the infantry on BFME 2 is so DUMB.I hope this game is worth it.I got the BFME 2 for $60.00.They are trying to kill us gamers.

  • zinser

    Posted Aug 23, 2006 9:20 am PT

    that will be great

  • jakeboudville

    Posted Aug 21, 2006 6:20 pm PT

    Yay! A new expansion.I want to play it now

  • Krusher222

    Posted Aug 4, 2006 5:18 am PT

    Where’s my precious! EA please hurry, the sooner we get the game the sooner you all can get cracking on the next expansion $$$$ PS don't ship the bugs those we can do without

  • optiplex7

    Posted Aug 3, 2006 2:38 pm PT

    i hope they don't stall C&C 3 for this expansion cause they got enough lord of the ring games and i got too many of them.

  • naryanrobinson

    Posted Aug 3, 2006 9:21 am PT

    the first game was definately better than the new one, it had a decent campaign

  • naryanrobinson

    Posted Aug 3, 2006 9:19 am PT

    [This message was deleted at the request of the original poster]

  • thepeter

    Posted Jul 29, 2006 8:53 pm PT

    star-trek sucks!

  • LucASPrime

    Posted Jul 29, 2006 8:18 am PT

    I'm looking forward 2 play it and I hope this faction will bring something new 2 the game.MayB now a new balance will appear...4 evil races against 4 good ones??!! introducing a new faction on the side of good as opposed 2 Angmar...The Dunedains 4 example,cause we were already used 2 play the good or the evil campain.I would also love 2C all the 9 Black Riders on the map.

  • snowysponge

    Posted Jul 29, 2006 5:44 am PT

    it better be able to run on my PC though

  • XxNizzleberryxX

    Posted Jul 28, 2006 3:22 pm PT

    lol commenting

  • _Sam_

    Posted Jul 28, 2006 11:25 am PT

    I can't wait

  • moaezz_kazi

    Posted Jul 27, 2006 4:14 pm PT

    i cnt wait for this to come out!!!!!!!!!! :-D

  • amirtheonly

    Posted Jul 27, 2006 2:01 pm PT

    I'm getting this one, clinging to the hope that a better Campaign's there...

  • b11051973

    Posted Jul 27, 2006 11:06 am PT

    Considering I paid $60 for the game for my 360, they better make the expansion cheaper. $20 at the very most IMHO. It'll probably just be on Xbox Live.

  • ardylicious

    Posted Jul 27, 2006 10:59 am PT

    Theres another addition to my pc version. Nice one EA

  • sasuke55

    Posted Jul 27, 2006 10:37 am PT

    I hope this comes to the 360 but I would like it be resonably pricced to 39.99 damn that would be 100 for basically one game. They tryin to kill us gamers.

  • ashuncc2

    Posted Jul 27, 2006 9:18 am PT

    I would guess that it is coming to the 360. Considering that a game has the possibility to have 1000 gamerpoints and is at 705, right now. Similar to the PGR3 situation.

  • thekey

    Posted Jul 27, 2006 5:22 am PT

    EA ain't getting no money from me unless another Fight Night or when Madden 07(Because I have no choice if I want to play a console football game) comes out thats about it.

  • jkr2krz

    Posted Jul 27, 2006 4:49 am PT

    Hmm they are charging 20 bucks for a freaking infomericial, so I would guestimate... 39.99 for this. But in all seriouness if they do go the digital route for the 360 version I hope unlike most other "Digital purchases" I seen or bought, that they do pass on the so called "savings". Correct me if I am wrong but when the whole hype about delivering content this way started things like "oh well yea we'd save on packaging, actual distrubution etc, savings we'd pass on to the buyters" were talked about.. I yet to see that with any "New release" games.

  • jcloverboy

    Posted Jul 27, 2006 3:41 am PT

    It would be interesting to see how much EA would charge for an expansion on the Marketplace.

  • Trano8

    Posted Jul 27, 2006 3:30 am PT

    Man, i cant wait till i even get my 360!

  • enemyvillain

    Posted Jul 27, 2006 2:55 am PT

    im still waiting for the game to reach here in japan for the xbox360.

  • Najikill

    Posted Jul 27, 2006 2:52 am PT

    Yipee.. Hopefully there wont be all the same serious bugs that made me stop playing the original..

  • bobreturns

    Posted Jul 27, 2006 1:11 am PT

    i like the first i got it and enjoyed it but i didnt get the second one i wonder why

  • lord-of-gamers

    Posted Jul 26, 2006 11:59 pm PT

    yeah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
    its great that EA is bringing out an expansion pack and not a BFME 3 or something - twice the wait for a new game - the title is soooooooo coool i can t wait for it to come out on PC!!!

  • crazykidsmokin

    Posted Jul 26, 2006 11:15 pm PT

    of course it's cominging to the 360 they have to make up for the missing achivment points. although it will probably cost more on the 360 knowing ea.

  • hellknight40000

    Posted Jul 26, 2006 11:13 pm PT

    Sweetness. I have the collector's edition on the PC and the 360 version. I'm looking forward to it! Oh, and Blackstaff, this could very well be released for the 360. I hope it is, because it would be stupid if they didn't.

  • Blackstaff

    Posted Jul 26, 2006 9:50 pm PT

    DeltaCommando07
    wish i had a 360... this game is so awesome

    ...umm.... the expansion is for the computer version buddy o_O

  • GoddBless

    Posted Jul 26, 2006 9:38 pm PT

    Why couldn't he just spill the beans already.

  • dreadlord12345

    Posted Jul 26, 2006 8:15 pm PT

    my disk for the normal 1 vroke *munbles stupid sister* i hope i dont need it with trotwh

  • monsterjoe1

    Posted Jul 26, 2006 8:10 pm PT

    i foresaw this *dances and looks like an idiot*

  • DeltaCommando07

    Posted Jul 26, 2006 7:54 pm PT

    wish i had a 360... this game is so awesome

  • gmrscore-addict

    Posted Jul 26, 2006 7:06 pm PT

    i bet they had this ready for realese but they wanted more money out of ppl!

  • blacklodus

    Posted Jul 26, 2006 7:01 pm PT

    l'm very exctied about this l enjoy the Lord the rings games alot

  • hemakm3

    Posted Jul 26, 2006 7:00 pm PT

    Sweet!

  • obotex

    Posted Jul 26, 2006 6:40 pm PT

    mwahahaha excellent more witch-king pwnage

  • rokkuman09

    Posted Jul 26, 2006 6:22 pm PT

    >dances

  • GPSnake03

    Posted Jul 26, 2006 5:31 pm PT

    wow

  • SpookyX

    Posted Jul 26, 2006 5:28 pm PT

    It could be distributed over Xbox live if it does come to the 360 which would be pretty dumb if they didn't since they put all this work into getting it on the 360. Anyway, the Prey demo was 1.2 GB! I am sure the expansion for BME II would be around that or even less so it is possible.

  • paullywog

    Posted Jul 26, 2006 5:21 pm PT

    make it free and make it add the extra 295 achievement points!

  • SouthpawSamurai

    Posted Jul 26, 2006 5:20 pm PT

    If EA has a good and smart bone left in it, this will hopefully be a series of battles during the rise and fall of Angmar, when the Witchking made a bid to conquer Aragorn's homeland of Arnor (the northern equivalent of Gondor) and not some completely fanciful tale.

  • kinncolts

    Posted Jul 26, 2006 5:10 pm PT

    why wucdnt it be availble over XBL????? sure it wud take a long time to download but it definenetly cud

  • Arc_Angel2k4

    Posted Jul 26, 2006 5:03 pm PT

    This may be a GRAW chapter 2 thing it will cost like 1200 credits. If its even offered for the 360.

  • Chubbums

    Posted Jul 26, 2006 4:43 pm PT

    Highly doubt the expansion would be available over XboxLive, 360 would most likely get the game in a Doom3 ROE (xbox version) fashion or a Morrowind GOTY (xbox version) way.

  • bcfish

    Posted Jul 26, 2006 4:39 pm PT

    Whoo-hoo! Thank you so much! Even EA has its bright moments, sometimes!

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