If you don’t know publisher Private Division by name, then you ought to at least be familiar with the games it has helped release. The brand serves as Take-Two’s indie label, and it’s shepherded the likes of The Outer Worlds, Hades, OlliOlli World, Rollerdrome, and more. Next up? A Lord of the Rings game.
As announced on Twitter, Private Division has “partnered with Weta Workshop to publish a new game set in the literary Middle-earth universe of J.R.R. Tolkien.” Weta and Lord of the Rings are already quite closely associated, as the studio was responsible for the iconic CGI and practical effects in the Peter Jackson-directed film trilogy. Now the two are joining forces for what could end up being a very exciting game — Weta has the experience.
People at the two companies are certainly hyped for the partnership. “The Lord of the Rings IP is home to so many remarkable stories, and no entity is better equipped than the team at Weta Workshop to create a distinctive, new Middle-earth gaming experience,” said the head of Private Division Michael Worosz in a press release. “It’s a privilege to create a new game set in Middle-earth, especially one that’s so different from what fans have played previously,” echoed Amie Wolken, head of interactive at Weta.
There isn’t much more info to glean from the press release. “This title is in early development and does not yet have an announced release date,” it reads. “It is expected to launch during Take-Two’s fiscal year 2024.” Having an expected launch window is good; FY 2024 runs from April 1, 2023, through March 31, 2024. Notably, that’s the same window during which some analysts have predicted the Grand Theft Auto 6 release date will fall.
We’ll see a new Lord of the Rings game long before either of those projects are finished, though. Lord of the Rings: Gollum should be out later this year after publisher Daedalic pushed it back from its original September 1 launch date. That game is set in a parallel timeline to the books’ early chapters.
