Middle-Earth: Shadow of War Delayed into October

Monolith Productions has announced a two-month delay for Middle-Earth: Shadow of War.

When Middle-Earth: Shadow of War was announced in February, it was slated to release in August. Since then, Monolith has released a gameplay trailer that has only heightened gamers’ excitement for the upcoming title. Unfortunately, the wait for Shadow of War just got a little bit longer, as Monolith has delayed its release to October 10.

The news came in a post on the game’s official forums, which said,

“Middle-earth: Shadow of War expands gameplay in every dimension, including the massive open world, the story, the RPG systems, and personal player stories of the Nemesis System. 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.

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. We’re excited to show more at E3.”

The move takes Shadow of War out of its position as the first big game of the holiday release season, and moves it back into October. That puts is just a week ahead of South Park: The Fractured But Whole, and likely alongside some other titles that will get release dates in the coming months. How that will affect its sales remains to be seen.

Middle-Earth: Shadow of War will now release on October 10, 2017 for PC, PS4, and Xbox One.