A new Lord of the Rings game, Tales of the Shire, has been announced for PC and consoles.
It’s being developed by New Zealand-based special effects and prop company Wētā Workshop, which is perhaps best known for its work on the Lord of the Rings and Hobbits films, and will be published by Take-Two’s Private Division label.
“Your cosy Hobbit life awaits in Tales of the Shire, a heart-warming, new, The Lord of the Rings game due out in 2024 on console and PC,” Private Division said.
A teaser trailer for the game, which is listed as “coming soon” on the publisher’s website, is viewable above.
Embracer Group acquired the entertainment rights for The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit IPs in August 2022.
As part of ongoing restructuring efforts, which have resulted in some game studios being closed and some projects being cancelled, the company has said it plans to increase its focus on internal IP like The Lord of the Rings.
“I have a high degree of confidence that this entire process is going to easily translate into better product selection that’s more profitable and that gives us a greater opportunity for growth in the future, and that helps to leverage the IP that we own within our organisation,” interim chief operating officer Matthew Karch said in June.
“I mean, we own Lord of the Rings, and we know we need to be exploiting Lord of the Rings in a very significant fashion and turning that into one of the biggest gaming franchises in the world, and that’s obviously something we’re going to be doing.”
It was announced in May that Amazon Games is developing and set to publish a Lord of the Rings MMO for PC and console.
That same month, the poorly received The Lord of the Rings Gollum was released for PC and consoles.
In February, Embracer announced it had stuck an agreement with New Line Cinema and Warner Bros. Pictures to collaborate on multiple feature films based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s most famous works.
