Lord Of The Rings: Tales Of The Shire is Stardew Valley in Middle-earth

Tales of the Shire will be set in the fantastical world created by J.R.R Tolkien and looks to be the perfect cosy game for the upcoming months. Despite its popularity, the Lord of the Rings franchise hasn’t had the best track record for video game iterations. With The Lord of the Rings: Gollum still fresh in our minds, we need a clean slate and that appears to be the goal for developers Wētā Workshop.

The official teaser trailer released on 21 September shows a woman sketching what looks to be Middle Earth in the form of a dainty little Hobbit hole. Although we don’t know much else about what we can expect from Tales of the Shire, it looks to be centered on the Hobbits themselves. With Hobbits we can also expect adventure so it will be interesting to see just how much of Middle Earth we will get to explore.

The trailer ends with the revealing that the game will be launching in 2024. Tales of the Shire will be coming to consoles and PC with developers promising fans will get to see the full reveal sometime in the new year. For those who want to stay on top of updates, they can head over to the game’s official Twitter account.

With the press release calling this a “cozy The Lord of the Rings game”, it is hard to pin down what genre it will fall into. Cosy games have been defined widely in recent years but all seem to share a lifestyle simulation element as well as a resource management aspect. With the most well-known games in the category being Animal Crossing: New Horizons and Stardew Valley, it will be interesting to see Middle Earth presented in this style.