Why Tales of the Shire Suddenly Has Even More Weight to…

Weta Workshop, the physical effects studio best known for its work on Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings trilogy, is developing its first-ever game for home consoles called Tales of the Shire. This project, which is being published by former Take Two subsidiary Private Division, is unsurprisingly set in The Lord of the Rings franchise. It, however, is different from most other games based on the long-running series. Tales of the Shire is a cozy life simulation game that lets players live out their hobbit fantasies in the Shire. It features no combat and no high-stakes story; instead, it has more in common with Animal Crossing or Fantasy Life than a regular action-adventure game.

Tales of the Shire has so far been confirmed for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch and Windows PC. The game was originally slated for release in 2024, but since then, it has been delayed two times. Weta Workshop and Private Division first announced that Tales of the Shire would be released on March 25, 2025, but they recently pushed its launch back an additional four months, to July 29, 2025. Weta Workshop already has a lot to prove with Tales of the Shire, given that it's the company's first-ever console title, but the fact that a sequel to one of the best Lord of the Rings games likely won't happen puts even more pressure on it than ever before.

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By Jacob Kay

Since a Middle-Earth Sequel is Unlikely, The Need for a Good Lord of the Rings Game is Higher than Ever

Monolith Productions, The Middle-Earth Devs, Were Recently Shuttered by Warner Bros.

On Tuesday, Warner Bros. Interactive made the shocking announcement that Monolith Productions, the company behind the beloved Middle-earth games, would be shuttered alongside two other studios, WB Games San Diego and Player First Games. This news came as a massive surprise, in large part because of Monolith Production's storied history as a game developer. Monolith had been around for over 30 years, and it left its mark on the video game industry with many critically-acclaimed titles, such as The Operative: No One Lives Forever, Condemed: Criminal Origins, F.E.A.R., and, of course, Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor.

Prior to its closure, Monolith Productions was working on a Wonder Woman game, but it was recently canceled.

Monolith Productions was one of the only AAA developers that worked on The Lord of the Rings franchise in the last decade. Lately, most of the games based off of J.R.R. Tolkien's legendary franchise have either been smaller in terms of budget or developed with mobile phones in mind. Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor and its 2017 sequel, Middle-earth: Shadow of War, however, were both blockbuster AAA action games. Shadow of War was sadly the last game Monolith Productions ever made, and from the looks of it, it'll remain the last single-player AAA Lord of the Rings game for quite some time.

There Aren't Many Lord of the Rings Games to Look Forward to, So Tales of the Shire Needs to Hit a Home Run

The Lord of the Rings franchise has had a tough time in the realm of gaming as of late. The last two console games based on the franchise, The Lord of the Rings: Gollum and The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria, were met with mixed reception at best or were critically-panned at worst. As for upcoming Lord of the Rings games, on the other hand, there isn't really anything of note to look forward to other than the aforementioned Tales of the Shire and the untitled Lord of the Rings MMO developed by Amazon Games.

Given the dire state of Lord of the Rings video games at the moment, Weta Workshop really needs to hit a home run with Tales of the Shire. Since Warner Bros. Will probably not make a third installment in Monolith Productions' Middle-earth series, and since there aren't many major studios working on the Lord of the Rings IP, it's possible that Tales of the Shire may be one of the only single-player Lord of the Rings games that gets released in the foreseeable future. Hopefully, the recent delay for Tales of the Shire will give Weta Workshop enough time to fix any of its issues, so that the game receives a smooth launch and doesn't end up like Gollum.