The Lord of the Rings: Gollum may ultimately turn out to be a footnote in gaming history, but it will be an extremely interesting footnote. This stealth game based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s classic novels (not Peter Jackson’s overstuffed, bombastic movies) showed off some screenshots back in May 2020. In so doing, it became perhaps the first game to ever showcase PS5 and Xbox Series X graphics. More than two years after its initial reveal, LOTR: Gollum finally has a firm release date: September 1, 2022.
Developer Daedalic Entertainment shared the news via press release, and it’s all about as straightforward as it sounds. The Lord of the Rings: Gollum will come out on September 1 for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S; a Nintendo Switch version will follow later in the year. There’s no price listed yet, so if you wanted to pre-order the game, it seems you’ll have to wait a little bit longer.
LOTR: Gollum first caught gamers’ attention about two years ago when Daedalic shared screenshots from the game. The developers planned to release the game on PS5 and Xbox Series X, and up until then, no one had really seen a next-gen console game screenshot. It’s still not clear whether the screenshots in question were from a next-gen console version of the game, or a powerful PC. Either way, they captured the gaming public’s attention. Later on, of course, we learned that LOTR: Gollum would come out on last-gen consoles as well.
In spite of showing off screenshots early on, LOTR: Gollum was not a next-gen launch title, and gamers have been waiting for it ever since. Tom’s Guide saw an extended preview of the game in action about a year ago, and it’s shaping up to be a solid stealth adventure. What’s more: We also learned that if the game is successful, Daedalic plans a full LOTR game trilogy, exploring other elements from Tolkien’s novels.
“We’re talking about a game series,” Carsten Fichtelmann, Daedalic’s CEO, told Tom’s Guide. “Gollum is the first game in the game series we are working on. There will be a second game, and hopefully a third game.
After a veritable blitz of new games in February and March, video game releases have been fairly quiet in 2022, and this summer seems like it will continue the trend. Debuting on September 1, LOTR: Gollum could help kick off a more exciting fall release season.
