Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-Earth interview

GameSpy chats with Mark Skaggs as he talks about Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-Earth, the upcoming RTS game from Electronic Arts:

GameSpy: Where did the primary inspiration for doing a LotR RTS come from?

Mark Skaggs: Here's the funny thing - before EA snagged the license, we were all set to make a Lord of the Rings RTS. We actually brought the idea up to management. At that point EA didn't have the license and they thought it might be a hassle getting it, so we started working on another project that eventually became Generals. Then, during Generals, the LotR license came to EA. At that point we spoke up again and said 'Hey, we'd like to do the LotR RTS!'. Then the first film came out, it was amazing and it got us even more excited. After that it was just a matter of continuing to raise our hands and say "Hey, we'd like to do the LotR RTS!"