 The Lord of the Rings : The Battle for Middle @-@ earth II is a real @-@ time strategy video game developed and published by Electronic Arts . It is based on the fantasy novels The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien and its live @-@ action film trilogy adaptation . It is the sequel to Electronic Arts ' 2004 title The Lord of the Rings : The Battle for Middle @-@ earth . The Windows version of the game was released on March 2 , 2006 and the Xbox 360 version was released on July 5 , 2006 . Along with the standard edition , a Collector 's Edition of the game was released , containing bonus material and a documentary about the game 's development . The online servers were shut down for Windows in 2010 and Xbox 360 in 2011 , however Windows users may still play online using Virtual Private Network programs . 
