Middle-earth: Shadow of War delayed into October

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Monolith said it will have more to show at E3.

Middle-earth: Shadow of War, which had been slated for release in August, has been pushed back to October 10, developer Monolith Productions announced today. Specific reasons for the delay weren't provided, but the short version is that Shadow of War "expands gameplay in every dimension" over its predecessor, Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, and it's taking a little longer than expected to get everything right. 

"As with Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, Monolith is committed to delivering the highest quality experience. In order to do this, we have made the difficult decision to move our launch date to ensure that Middle-earth: Shadow of War will deliver on that promise," the studio wrote on its forums. "We understand that it might be disappointing to have to wait a little longer for the release and are sorry for the delay, but we are working hard to make an amazing game." 

The new date applies to North America and Europe, but Monolith warned that other territories, including Australia, New Zealand, and Japan, will have a different release date. 

We got to spend some quality time with Shadow of War's "spider mercs and singing uruks" earlier this month, and it sounds like a promising follow-up to the excellent original: "By drawing out relationships with foes and friends over the course of dozens of battles and chance encounters, Shadow of War could become the ultimate fantasy soap opera," as James put it. Read the whole thing here. 

Andy Chalk
Andy Chalk
US News Lead

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.

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