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A new Lord of the Rings game is in development in partnership with the studio behind some of the film trilogy's most iconic moments.
Earlier today, Private Division - the publisher behind titles including The Outer Worlds, Hades, and OlliOlli World - announced on Twitter that it would be publishing "a new game set in the literary Middle-Earth universe of J.R.R Tolkein."
The game is being developed in partnership with Weta Workshop, a New Zealand based prop company that contributed a number of intricate models used in Peter Jackson's film trilogy. Those models included the towering Mumakil, the cities of Rivendell, Osgiliath, and Minas Tirith, Sauron's tower, and the statues of Elendil and Isildur at Argonath.
Weta Workshop established a game development studio in 2014. Last November, it was revealed that the team was working on a game relating to a major IP, so it's pretty safe to say that was referring to Lord of the Rings.
There's little further information about the game, but Private Division does say that Middle-Earth Enterprises, which controls the rights to the franchise, has "licensed the literary works of the series, providing Weta Workshop with the broadest creative license to interpret the underlying lore of the books," rather than the films or any other form of adaptation. Beyond that, we know that "this title is early in development," and "expected" to launch during the 2024 fiscal year, likely meaning a release in the early part of 2024.
If that's too long to wait, then there's still Lord of the Rings: Gollum to look forward to, as well as the upcoming Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.
