This is a strange one! The publishing team behind The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria has announced the game's delay to 2024... but only on Xbox. Yep, the upcoming co-op survival spin on the LOTR franchise is hitting PC and PS5 on October 24th (December 5th for physical copies), but the Xbox Series X|S version isn't coming out until "early 2024".
At the time of writing we have no concrete explanation for the Xbox-specific delay, so we're hoping that it's just a case of the team prioritising certain versions of the game to launch before others. Recently, Baldur's Gate 3 was delayed on Xbox due to issues developing for the Series S, which we're hoping doesn't become a regular thing in the coming years.
If the delay isn't putting you off at all and you're still interested in this one when it comes to Xbox, here's a bit more info on LOTR: Return to Moria:
"In The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria players will create their own custom Dwarf before venturing into the cavernous mines of Moria alone or together with a company of fellow Dwarves online. Each adventure into the depths will bring unique challenges and opportunities through the use of procedurally generated environments, creating nearly endless possibilities as players seek the deepest delves of the Dwarves.
Excavate the mysteries of the Misty Mountains, extract precious metals prized by Dwarves, rebuild and refire forges that have long since gone cold, and learn the secret of the Shadow that lurks within."
Would you like more of an explanation for this Xbox delay? Let us know your thoughts down below.
Comments 23
It be Series S again!
@Pimpernel I definitely don't think we'll be getting two skus again next gen and expect the cut off between the generations to be much faster. It does seem that devs are still focusing on PC n Sony first and Xbox is being left to the end due to the series S.
I hope that first party can show some great stuff on the series S to show what it can actually do when it's utilized.
@Krzzystuff or Xbox is being left to the end due to having a smaller market share and small developers without enough resources to port games for multiple platforms at the same time choose to focus on the best selling console...
@Krzzystuff
It does seem that devs are still focusing on PC n Sony first and Xbox is being left to the end due to the series S
Like @RazputinAquato pointed out having a smaller install base and being sold out by 2:1 by their rival console has a far greater impact on what/who gets priority with developers, especially if its not by the industry behemoths. I find it strange that the Series S has now become a scapegoat every time a developer prefers to work for whatever reason on the PS5 first.😉
@RazputinAquato either way, the series S better shine on first party games to show that it's the devs not the system. And I don't think they will have 2 skus again. Likely a stream box n a proper system so there's just one to develop for.
@Sol4ris I do think if it was just the X we wouldn't be having these delays though. So yes they are in 3rd but if it wasn't for the series S they wouldn't be holding back these titles. The S is still the weak link in the chain. It's why I really hope 1st party can deliver on it.
For a moment I thought this was about Lords of the Fallen.
Really no interest in this one.
Dollars to doughnuts it is an issue with the Series S, again.
The way it is looking, the mid gen upgrade we're going to get is another replacement for the Series S after the upgraded storage SKU they just did.
The Series S and Xbox's lack of sales are great scapegoats to get the Xbox version done later. They can easily focus on the PS5 and PC and delay the Xbox version, as long as developers blame the Series S no one will question them.
This is just a small studio prioritizing the highest traffic platforms first.. I believe it was a similar case for their last game Oddworld Soul Storm which released April 2021 for playstation and pc and November for xbox. In that case it was a paid exclusive window but they admitted that funding was very tight and it was better to be able to focus on less platforms launches at a time.
@InterceptorAlpha how would adding a 3rd sku make things better? The S is here for the whole gen and it is what it is. They won't do and "pro" versions this gen. Maybe more storage, smaller sizes, but same specs.
I can wait forever. This game looks like crap. More likely it won't even make a profit on Xbox so they aren't in any rush. This game looks like a 360 game. So the S being the issue is BS IMO.
@Krzzystuff Well they already introduced a third SKU. The 1TB Series S.
What I'm referring to would be a fourth SKU, which would replace the Series S, and ideally result in the original Series S being ignored all together. Similar to how everybody ignored the One when the One X came out. And ideally this would result in the dropping of the parity close for the poor hardware the current Series S has.
It is fine they said they wouldn't do a Pro model. But they need to either drop the Series S all together, replace it with a new version with specs the same as the X, or drop the parity clause. Otherwise the Xbox Ecosystem will be the place to play games last.
I don’t trust all these xbox only delays. Feels to me a bit like these developers are getting a last minute check from Sony for some sort of timed exclusivity deal.
@InterceptorAlpha the black series s isn't a different SKU for the devs as it's the same guts with more memory. Series S is the majority of the sold consoles so it's not getting replaced. They won't be making a third SKU with different guts. This is it for the gen asides from more memory and maybe smaller sizes. Sorry but your idea is horrible, you're thinking that basically killing off support for the majority of your install base is a valid plan? I'm not sure if you're serious but if you are.... you're not good at business.
@Pimpernel 👀
Xbox has been going down since the Kinect launched. They took their eye off the ball and have paid the price for it!
@Krzzystuff You might want to re check what a SKU is. The 1TB Series S is very much a different SKU.
And on you comment about not being good a business: I'm not the one that released an anemic console that resulted in cusses after issue for developers to make games. So much so the point that your console gets to play 3rd fiddle to everyone else.
Sony did it right. Two SKUs. One without a disc drive. One with. Everything else was the same. And they don't have to worry about one of their platforms holding the other back.
This is the 360 debacle again where you had a SKU without a HDD and one with. So you had a lot of 360s that couldn't play certain games until someone bought a HDD for it. You'd have thought they learned their lesson back then. 😂
@Friendly Not a lot to not trust. It is well documented developers are struggling with how underpowered the Series S and Microsoft requiring feature parity between the two. Meanwhile Sony has no such issue. Regardless of it you get a disc less PS5 or one with a disc drive, the hardware is otherwise the same.
Xbox Series S is so underwhelming. Microsoft has another FAIL….
@Sol4ris I think the Series S is a fair scapegoat. Developers have admitted its caused delays with Xbox. Also Xbox last gen also had the smaller "install base", yet I don't remember games coming out earlier for ps4 than Xbox one. Besides timed exclusives of course. So I think it is in fact fair to preemptively blame series S.
This obviously is nowhere near as impactful as the Balder’s Gate 3 delay, but it is a concerning sign nonetheless. If this starts to become a trend then Sony is going to be enjoying many de-facto timed exclusives without needing to spend a single penny. That’s going to really hurt Xbox in the long term.
This game could run on Xbox One S so I am fairly confident that the Series S has nothing to do with this delay!
@RazputinAquato Playstation sucks.
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