Tales of the Shire | New Release Date & Updates | Hobbit Videogame from Wētā
In celebration of Tolkien Reading Day, Tales of the Shire has shared a new video highlighting more of the beautiful cozy game play and going into detail about the making of this new game from Wētā and Private Division. At just over ten minutes long, I highly recommend giving it a quick watch here.
This game is all about becoming a Hobbit in every way, including squabbling with your neighbors. You can customize your appearance and decorate your very own cozy Hobbit hole. Players can cook, fish, forage, garden, decorate their hobbit holes, interact with other villagers, and more. The story is set within the up-and-coming area of Bywater, and it is up to you to help this small town achieve official village status within Hobbiton.
The game was meant to be released at the end of the year but was pushed back into Summer 2025, which made me a bit worried about whether or not we’d ever actually see the game but this video has restored my hope!
Along with several clips of gameplay and looks at concept art, the video features interviews from several of the game’s creators such as:
Tania Rodger and Richard Taylor, Co-founders of Wētā Workshop
Mhairead Connor, Art Manager
Steve Lambert, Art Director
Tor Robinson, Technical Artist
Daniel Falconer, Creative Consultant
Josh Damian, Concept Artist
Catherine Booth, Game Designer
Darren Ormandy, Writer
It was lovely to be able to see and hear from the people who brought this game to life and put faces to names.
Highlights of the video, for me, were:
Seeing the Shire in different seasons! How beautiful it must be to run through the snow-covered hobbitton. Planning your life around the in-game seasons feels so perfectly hobbits and is a key component of the game.
The game includes some canonical characters such as Rosie Cotton.
The little duck with a helmet! Does he have a name?
Learning that they used trees native to the UK and based the landscape off of the areas in which Tolkien grew up, but also added their own unique New Zealand flavor to the world. Its creators were inspired by Tolkien’s love of trees, the urbanization of rural England, and the devastating effects of the First World War on Tolkien’s home.
There are small conflicts and problems, but none of the massive dark horrors that loom over the Shire in The Lord of the Rings. There is no combat in the game at all. This is the life and homeland that Frodo will ultimately be willing to sacrifice in order to save.
The primary conflict of the game is that there’s tension between some of the hobbits over whether Bywater should be classified as a village of its own or whether it should remain simply a part of Hobbiton. The player advances through the game by deepening their relationships with the other residents of Bywater, towards the ultimate goal of earning village status for Bywater.
The updated release date has been confirmed for 29 July 2025.
As far as I know, the game is still single-player only. I was hoping the delay would mean they’d add a multiplayer component but so far I don’t think they have.
Tales of the Shire will be available for play on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC via Steam. To me it seems like the perfect Switch game.
Everything I’ve seen from this game feels like a breath of fresh air and I cannot wait to play it this summer.
Watch the full video here: https://youtu.be/s3hIqt2QZRg?si=8cXFzT5VpkLQfvSj
