Today, New Zealand studio Wētā Workshop unveiled Tales of the Shire, its previously announced game set in Middle-earth. Not much has been shared about it other than the fact it’ll be a ‘cozy and heartwarming’ game, as evidenced by the artwork and the teaser trailer. It’s likely players will be asked to tend to their Hobbit farms and gardens rather than fighting orcs.
The game was previously planned to launch by March 2024 but quietly slipped to a more generic 2024 release window. Tales of the Shire will be available on PC and consoles, published by Private Division.
Tales of the Shire is just one of several game projects set in Tolkien’s Middle-earth fantasy world. The next to be released is the dwarf-focused survival crafting game Return to Moria, set in the Fourth Age, with Gimli prompting players to go forth and reclaim the long-lost kingdom of Khazad-dûm. Developed by Free Range Games and published by North Beach Games, it will be released on PC and PlayStation 5 in about a month, with an Xbox Series S|X version coming in early 2024.
Amazon Games is also once again working on an MMO based on The Lord of the Rings. It’s being developed by the Orange County studio that made New World, using a new version of the Azoth Engine (itself based on Lumberyard). The developers said it will be very different from New World, although that game’s learnings will be applied to The Lord of the Rings MMO.
Even more The Lord of the Rings games are likely to be in the concept phase, given that Embracer Group (the owner of the rights) stressed the need to turn the IP into one of gaming’s most successful franchises.
As excited as they may be for this new wave of Middle-earth titles, games will certainly be a bit wary after the massive failure of The Lord of the Rings: Gollum that caused Daedalic Entertainment to shut down its development side, reverting to publishing only.
