Publisher Private Division and developer Wētā Workshop have announced Tales of the Shire, a brand new game in the Lord of the Rings universe. Coming to PC and consoles sometime in 2024, it’s described as a “heart-warming” new game all about your “cosy Hobbit life”.

While we know very little about the game itself right now, the dev team’s history with Middle-earth makes this a really interesting project. Wētā Workshop is a company that primarily creates special effects and props for movies, with some of its most famous work being on the Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit films (as well as TV series The Rings of Power). It created costumes, sets, miniatures, and more for the movies, and so has a unique understanding of Tolkien’s fantasy world.

Wētā Workshop has an in-house game dev team, and its current project is Tales of the Shire. Utilising all its knowledge and previous experience with Middle-earth, we imagine this will have an authenticity to it that’s pretty unique. We’re very curious to see how the game will play, but by the sound of it, you’ll be living out a peaceful existence in the Hobbit homeland; perhaps it’ll be a breezy life sim about growing potatoes and eating second breakfasts.

Anyway, it’s still a ways off yet, but are you interested in Tales of the Shire?