The Most Anticipated Lord Of The Rings Game Is Finally Being Released
Lord of the Rings: Gollum will be released for multiple consoles on May 25.
The highly anticipated Lord of the Rings: Gollum video game has finally got a release date after months of silence from the game’s developer Daedalic Entertainment. The last bit of concrete news was shared some nine months ago in the form of a gameplay video following a series of delays and uncertainties that shook the entire gaming industry. Now, however, Daedalic stated that the game is supposed to launch on May 25, 2023.
According to PC Gamer, Lord of the Rings: Gollum will go live on Steam and last- and current-gen PlayStation and Xbox platforms on May 25, with a subsequent Nintendo Switch release scheduled for later this year. As previously discussed, the gameplay will feature a blend of stealth and action as Gollum—admittedly, a not-very appealing protagonist—sneaks around Middle-earth. The title was originally announced in 2019, with a planned 2021 release date, but it has been delayed twice so far—the second delay was indefinite.
For better or worse, the only reason why the game was delayed so much was the pandemic, and once things returned to normal, Daedalic continued their development of the much anticipated Lord of the Rings: Gollum game. So, there’s yet hope for the Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time remake. To be entirely honest, considering how quiet the development was, following the news about the game’s indefinite delay, it’s quite surprising that the game received a release date and one that’s only two months away.
This means that the Lord of the Rings: Gollum has wrapped up the post-production period and has gone into printing and shipping. Unfortunately, the same can’t be said for the Nintendo Switch version of the game. Daedalic did announce the Switch version, whose release is unsurprisingly scheduled at a later date compared to other platforms.
Unfortunately, the exact release date or at least a release window wasn’t really specified, so the Nintendo Switch release might be pushed into 2024.
Considering the rumors regarding the purported Nintendo Switch 2, Daedalic might want to hold out for the console to release before launching the Lord of the Rings: Gollum game. We’d say that it’s pointless releasing a game for a previous-gen console, but Switch’s record-breaking sales numbers are one argument we can’t beat, so it’s not outside the realm of possibilities that the game would release on the original Switch console at one point. Shame, considering that it would likely look and perform a bit better on the newer hardware.
Regardless, Lord of the Rings: Gollum is but one release in a sea of multimedia releases that effectively signal the franchise’s expansion. Sure, there were other games and animations from the Lord of the Rings franchise, but before Peter Jackson’s trilogy, we didn’t really have anything backed up by a true blockbuster budget. Luckily, that changed things up, and the franchise expanded in all directions, including gaming. Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor and its sequel Shadow of War, are good examples of just how great Lord of the Rings games can be.
Lord of the Rings: Gollum is scheduled to release on May 25, 2023, for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. Nintendo Switch release, though announced, still doesn’t have a release date.
