Ever since developer Free Range Games and publisher North Beach Games announced The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria, Xbox owners have wondered whether the game is coming to Series X/S. The companies initially billed Return to Moria as a PC-only Epic Games Store exclusive, before later confirming that the Dwarf-centric survival crafting title would drop on current-gen consoles as well. Fast forward to today, though, and Return to Moria only has a release date on PC and the PlayStation 5 (PS5).
So, what gives? Is the Xbox Series X/S version of Return to Moria still happening, or are Middle-earth fans who own either machine out of luck? Read on to find out!
Related: What We Know About Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria’s Fourth Age
Is Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria Coming to Xbox Series X/S?
First things first, let me allay your fears: the Xbox Series X/S release of The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria isn’t canceled. That’s the good news; the bad news is that this version of the game has been delayed by at least two months. Free Range Games and North Beach Games confirmed as much via the official Return to Moria X account in August 2023, revealing gamers will have to wait until 2024 for the game’s Series X/S debut. The X post doesn’t supply an exact date, although the “early 2024” window it does provide suggests the developer and publisher are targeting a Q1 2024 release.
Why the delay? Neither Free Range Games nor North Beach Games have officially commented on the subject, however, smart money is on the former running into unanticipated difficulties while trying to develop Return to Moria across three (technically, four) platforms simultaneously. The staggered announcement of Return to Moria‘s console releases and the subsequent delay of the PS5 version suggests the companies only made the decision to support these systems relatively late in the game’s development cycle. This lends further credence to the theory that there simply wasn’t enough time for Free Range Games to finish Return to Moria on consoles in time for the PC version’s October launch date.
No matter the reason for the different release date, one thing is clear: gamers eager to dive into The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria sooner rather than later will need to get their hands on a suitably specced PC by Oct. 24, or shell out for a PS5 by Dec. 5 (when that version is now set to come out). Failing that, Xbox Series X/S owners will have to wait until sometime next year to get their Dwarf on.
