The Lord of the Rings survival game Return to Moria is out in October

The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria
(Image credit: Free Range Games)

The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria is officially out later this year in October.

Earlier today on August 23 as part of Gamescom 2023, IGN revealed that Return to Moria would finally be launching later this year on October 24, for both PC and PS5. However, as the tweet below cements, this release is only for the digital versions of the game on both platforms, with a physical launch coming later in the year on December 5.

As for Xbox hopefuls, there's only a loose window of "early 2024" to go on right now for The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria. Considering we're bearing down on Fall/Autumn right now though, we'd be surprised if a finalized release date for Xbox Series X/S platforms wasn't more than a few months away at most.

As a new gameplay trailer for Return to Moria revealed earlier this year, it's basically putting a survival twist on the established Lord of the Rings universe. This sort of translates to The Lord of the Rings by way of Valheim, and considering what a banger that survival game turned out to be, there are pretty high hopes out there for Return to Moria.

Return to Moria takes place after the events of The Lord of the Rings. It depicts the dwarves attempting to reclaim their ancestral mine from the clutches of orcs, goblins, and various other horrors deep in the depths of Moria, although mercifully there's no Balrog to contend with there anymore. 

Return to Moria starts out with you customizing your own dwarf, before setting out to reclaim Moria for your brethren, battling goblins and spiders alike with hardened steel. There's even online play with others online, which has only hastened the comparisons to Valheim over the past few months. 

Check out our new games 2023 guide for a look at all the other titles coming out towards the end of the year. 

Hirun Cryer

Hirun Cryer is a freelance reporter and writer with Gamesradar+ based out of U.K. After earning a degree in American History specializing in journalism, cinema, literature, and history, he stepped into the games writing world, with a focus on shooters, indie games, and RPGs, and has since been the recipient of the MCV 30 Under 30 award for 2021. In his spare time he freelances with other outlets around the industry, practices Japanese, and enjoys contemporary manga and anime.