The Lord of the Rings is one of the biggest and best-known entertainment franchises, but recent entries in the game series have left much to be desired. The series is continuing with at least one new game, an untitled open-world Middle-earth RPG from the developers of the popular Kingdom Come series. In this post, we're rounding up everything we know about the game. 

This post will be updated over time as more details come to light about the new Lord of the Rings game.

In This Article

• What is the new Lord of the Rings game?
• "Deeply immersive"
• When will the Lord of the Rings game be released?
• Fellowship Entertainment
• Recent struggles
• Renaissance for LOTR games
• What about the next LOTR movies?

What is the new Lord of the Rings game?

In May 2026, Warhorse Studios announced it was making a "Middle-earth RPG" that would be an open-world game (the company also announced a new Kingdom Come game at the same time). The developer did not use "The Lord of the Rings" branding, but Middle-earth and The Lord of the Rings are synonymous to many. 

The stories that J.R.R. Tolkien wrote, including his iconic The Lord of the Rings trilogy and The Hobbit, exist within Middle-earth. This is the word for the whole world that Tolkien created. It's a vast mythology with numerous different locations to explore and characters to meet, not to mention the various different Ages of Middle-earth, so it will be intriguing to see where Warhorse's story takes place and if any familiar characters show up. 

The announcement was very light on details, while no imagery whatsoever was released, not even concept art or a mood piece. It's possible the game was revealed for the purposes of helping ramp up hiring, or to signal to Embracer's investors that more big games are coming to help improve confidence in the company and the stock.

"Deeply immersive"

During a community broadcast following the game's unveiling, Warhorse communications director Tobias Stolz-Zwilling said Warhorse has assembled a "mind-blowing team" to make the game, and that the game is aiming to be "deeply immersive." 

He also said the game will feature a "living world" populated by "interesting characters, memorable places, and of course a strong narrative focus." This does not tell us much of anything about the game, but it's a starting point to help understand where the game may be headed. We also know that Deliverance 2 design director Viktor Bocan is leading the development of the untitled Lord of the Rings game.

When will the Lord of the Rings game be released?

The game was only just revealed, but already we have an indication as to when the Lord of the Rings game may be released. Warhorse said its next Kingdom Come game is targeting a release during Embracer's next fiscal year (April 2027-March 2028), with The Lord of the Rings game following after. In short, it's what you probably already guessed: the game is not releasing soon. 

Fellowship Entertainment

As part of the announcement of the new Lord of the Rings game, Embracer confirmed that it will spin off a second unit, Fellowship Entertainment, which is described as an "IP-led entertainment company" focused on The Lord of the Rings, as well as Tomb Raider and "many other" owned IPs. Embracer said that creating Fellowship Entertainment and spinning it off will allow the standalone company to have a "better structure" to maximize its potential. 

To be sure, Fellowship Entertainment may carry a Middle-earth-inspired name, but it's much bigger than that. Companies under the Fellowship Entertainment banner include Middle-earth Enterprises, but also many of its subsidiaries, including 4A Games, Crystal Dynamics, Eidos-Montreal, Gunfire Games, and Warhorse itself. 

Recent struggles

The Lord of the Rings video games have not been very well received lately. 2023's The Lord of the Rings: Gollum was so poorly received that its developer canceled its next game and stopped making games entirely. 2025 saw the release of the cozy-looking Hobbit life-sim Tales of the Shire, but it was a critical miss as well. The game was delayed multiple times before launch, and Netflix backed out of a publishing deal for it. 

These misfires came after better-received games came from Monlolith Productions, including 2014's Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor and 2017's Middle-earth. Shadow of Mordor was GameSpot's Game of the Year in 2014, and many other people and publications loved it.

Renaissance for LOTR games

After Embracer acquired Middle-earth Enterprises, the company said it was prototyping multiple new Lord of the Rings games, so the announcement of a game from an Embracer subsidiary, Warhorse, was not a complete shock. If Crystal Dynamics is making another Lord of the Rings game, that would track as well, given Embracer owns that studio and would have more favorable financial terms than working with an outside team. 

Before Embracer's comment about prototyping new Lord of the Rings game, the company's top Lord of the Rings boss, Lee Guinchard, said he wanted there to be a renaissance for Lord of the Rings games. After all, many may recall the heyday of licensed games in the early 2000s when there were games based on Peter Jackson's movie series and the Battle for Middle-earth franchise There were also Lego Lord of the Rings and Hobbit games that fans may fondly remember. 

What about the next LOTR movies?

Beyond Warhorse's new Lord of the Rings game, multiple new movies based on the series are in the works. The first to come is 2027's The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum, which brings back Elijah Wood as Frodo, Ian McKellen as Gandalf, Andy Serkis as Gollum, and Lee Pace as Thranduil. Jamie Dornan steps into the role of Aragorn, while Oscar-winner Kate Winslet will play Marigol in the film that Serkis is directing. After this movie will come the tentatively titled Shadow of the Past, featuring a script written by super-fan Stephen Colbert, and this movie will finally bring Tom Bombadil to the big screen. 

Valve's Steam Controller presents itself as one of the best options for playing games on PC, specifically (but not limited to) games on Steam and through Steam Input. With tight integration into the platform, tons of customization options, and the ability to easily play controller and traditional keyboard- and- mouse titles alike, there's little to suggest that this isn't the one controller that does it all. Except that, currently, some firmware quirks are severely holding it back.

One of the most prevalent involves the controller's rumble, which exhibits some unpredictable and, in many cases, completely broken behavior, depending on the game you're playing. I've had a mostly great time with the Steam Controller, but recently some newer (and older) games have exposed the issue. With 007 First Light, the Steam Controller consistently (and powerfully) pulses, almost as if it's mimicking an in-game heartbeat, irrespective of what I'm doing. It's the same in Forza Horizon 6, albeit with far less force, but with the same rhythmic vibration that doesn't stop. Swapping to an Xbox controller in both cases resolves the issue entirely, laying blame squarely on Valve's controller.

But with Hollow Knight: Silksong, however, everything works as expected. That's the same for an older game like Metro Exodus, making the matter more confusing. This isn't isolated either. The Steam Controller subreddit is starting to become filled with similar posts regarding strange rumble behavior recently, perhaps due to a new firmware version potentially breaking something for those who have downloaded it. 

Some users have mentioned sending in the controller for a replacement, only for that to exhibit the same issue. Other users report not experiencing the issue at all. Steam Support, as reported by others, lays the blame squarely on developer support, and the absence of an official Steam Controller profile. That might be the case, but, as some users have noted, that shouldn't make the controller completely unusable. We've contacted Valve directly, and will update this story with any reply we receive in the future.

It's a disappointing reality for a controller that is already very expensive, despite all of its distinct features that are meant to set it apart from the plethora of third-party controllers. But if game support is going to be this spotty, and especially so in instances where the Steam Controller is the only one at fault, it does make that asking price seem a little steeper.

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is getting a third story expansion in 2027, more than 12 years after the game's original release. 2015 was a long, long time ago, and gaming hardware has drastically changed since-- so much so that CD Projekt Red is updating the recommended specifications for The Witcher 3, dropping Windows 10 support in the process.

The Witcher 3: Songs of the Past will be skipping PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch, which makes the slight change to the minimum requirements for PC understandable. The game will still be able to run on GPUs with less than 6GB of VRAM and 12GB of RAM. The requirement for an SSD over older hard drives might be tough if you haven't upgraded yet, especially with current prices, but is likely one you would've made a while ago. 

What is slightly alarming is the shift towards making Windows 11 a requirement, which hasn't gone down well with the PC community. "Mandatory Windows 11? Really? Either CDPR got a fat check from MicroSlop, or they don't give a sh*t about players at all," reads one thread on the Witcher 3 subreddit just a few hours after the expansion announcement. 

Many PC gamers are still on Windows 10 for various reasons, be it improved performance over the bloated Windows 11 or the inability to upgrade given the hardware requirements for the new operating system. Although The Witcher 3 now specifies Windows 11 in its minimum requirements, this does not mean that the game won't run at all on earlier versions of the OS. Instead, as CD Projekt Red clarified later, it means that the studio won't support or test the game on Windows 10 going forward.

This isn't a decision CD Projekt Red is making in a vacuum. Microsoft stopped supporting Windows 10 in late 2025, with the company ceasing security updates as it prioritises Windows 11 upgrades. Nvidia is also expected to stop releasing GPU drivers for Windows 10 later this year, and before the launch of Songs of the Past, which will likely have a discernible effect on the game's performance on your system.

"In short, this change does not mean that the game will not run on Windows 10," a post on The Witcher 3 forums concludes. "It means we cannot ensure that it will. Our goal is not to take something away from you. Our goal is to give you what is best the best way we can."

CD Projekt Red says that players will be able to revert to the current version of The Witcher 3 at any point, if newer updates make the game unplayable on Windows 10. The Witcher 3: Songs of the Past is expected to launch in 2027, with more details coming later in the summer.

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Marathon Season 2 begins June 2, and developer Bungie has now detailed all the ways its new Night Marsh map will have players jumping at shadows. For those who have been Marathon-curious but afraid to make the leap, the game will also be free to try June 2-9.

Playing Marathon, particularly solo, can be an intense game of cat and mouse--one that often feels like a survival-horror game as you scavenge for supplies and attempt to avoid hostile runners looking to end your run prematurely. In a lengthy blog post diving into what all is coming as part of Season 2, Bungie detailed how the game's Night Marsh map will further lean into that gameplay. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2UFxzejNNg

While Night Marsh is essentially a reskinned version of the game's existing Dire Marsh map, there are a significant number of changes between them. The map is, of course, now set at night, but other changes include the fact that exils are locked, and a new area that can be accessed beneath Complex, Complex Control.

The fact that the map will be set at night is the main change and will completely alter how encounters play out. Bungie said it's designed to be more of a "survival-horror experience," with fewer players and more environmental threats to deal with. Adding to the spook factor are some new tools players can use to cut through the darkness in the form of a flashlight, Vector ammo and grenades that highlight and illuminate the environment, signal flares, and Darksight scopes (meant to aid in traversing the map at night, not pinpointing enemies, Bungie clarified).

Escaping Night Marsh will be a challenge in and of itself, as players will need to gather Certs from fallen UESC enemies in order to access resource caches and to exfil. Those Certs will also be used to access Complex Control, where Bungie promises new "enemies, mysteries, and powerful loot awaits."

Night Marsh is just the tip of Marathon's Season 2 iceberg, with the new season also introducing a new Runner Shell, the defense-focused Sentinel. The first new shell to be added to Marathon since launch, the Sentinel is built around locking down areas and providing defensive buffs. 

Its Prime ability, Defender System, will automatically destroy enemy grenades and missiles for a limited time while boosting weapon handling for nearby teammates. Sentinel's Tactical ability puts down a proximity mine that snares hostiles in place, while their Traity ability activates a short range, motion-tracking system that pinpoints nearby moving targets on radar (not all that dissimilar from Halo by the sound of it). Lastly, Sentinel's passive, Castle Doctrine, grants increased resistances after taking splash damage as well as improved weapon handling for close-range weapons when surrounded by enemies. 

Both of Marathon Season 2's new weapons are designed to synergize nicely with Sentinel. The KKV-9SD is an SMG with a built-in suppressor and an extremely fast rate of fire. Season 2's other new weapon, The D54 Battle Pistol, is a three-round burst weapon designed to be great for close-range fights and 1v1 duels. 

There are plenty of other changes coming as part of Season 2 as well, including faster progression, reworked Faction skill trees, a dedicated duos queue, and the new Cradle progression system that allows players to convert unwanted loot into stat boosts. You can check out Bungie's blog for the full breakdown.

For those who check out Marathon during its free week, the game will be on sale across all its available platforms, and progress made during the free period will carry over to the full game. If you are a player returning to Marathon for Season 2, Bungie previously detailed how its seasonal wipes will work, explaining what does and doesn't carry over between seasons.

While Marathon continues to evolve, with Bungie promising new PvE modes to come as part of Season 2 and beyond, the studio's other game, Destiny 2, is winding down after nearly a decade . Bungie announced Destiny 2 would receive its final content update on June 9. The game will still remain playable but will not receive new content. With development on Destiny 2 ending, a recent report states Bungie will be hit with "significant layoffs" in the near future.

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Valve has announced a price hike for the Steam Deck OLED in the US--and it's a substantial increase.

The 1TB edition is going up from $650 to $950, while the 512GB OLED model is jumping from $550 to $790. The certified refurb models are not going up in price, but if you want a new OLED Steam Deck, prepare to pay more.

In a blog post, Valve said prices are going up due to "rising memory and storage costs." The company said the new prices "reflect the current state of component costs and other global logistical challenges across the industry as a whole."

Here are the new prices:

• Steam Deck OLED 512GB: Now $790 USD; CAD 1,130; EUR 780; GBP 650; AUD 1,200; PLN 3,280
• Steam Deck OLED 1TB: Now $950 USD; CAD 1,350; EUR 920; GBP 780; AUD 1,430; PLN 3,880

Valve's decision to raise prices on its own hardware came after similar price hikes on PlayStation and Xbox consoles. Nintendo, for its part, will raise the price of the Switch 2 in September. The platform-holders cited the global economic situation for why prices are going up.

Beyond the Steam Deck, Valve's next big hardware release is the new Steam Machine, which is set for release later this year. Critically, pricing has not been announced, but with the new Steam Deck price hikes--and the global economic landscape remaining far from settled--people should likely brace themselves for a high price.

Hardware engineer Yazan Aldehayyat said the aim is to land at a “competitive price” that matches up with the value provided. This is what most companies say about their new products. The aim, he said, is to make it “affordable.”

Some of the global economic factors driving up prices on many goods these days include the war in Iran and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz driving up oil prices, AI-fueled demand on chips, and US President Donald Trump's controversial--and illegal--tariff program.