The Lord of the Rings: Gollum will launch on PlayStation 5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and PC on May 25, with the Nintendo Switch version scheduled for sometime later this year.
The gameplay will feature a blend of stealth and action as Gollum sneaks around Middle-earth. The game will also have players making choices that align with either the character's darker side — Gollum — or his gentler half known as Sméagol. The developers have said the game is taking inspiration directly from J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, rather than Peter Jackson's film adaptations of the books.
The Lord of the Rings: Gollum was first announced back in 2019 for a 2021 release date. The original reveal said the game would explore events between Gollum's discovery of the One Ring and the beginning of the events seen in in The Lord of the Rings.
The game has faced several delays en route to its new May release date. IGN saw the game last year, and we weren't super impressed with the hands-off presentation, saying we were, "left with the underwhelming impression of a simple game that would have landed better in the era when Peter Jackson’s trilogy was still in cinemas than it will in 2022."
Gollum's release date comes at a packed time for AAA releases, with Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Street Fighter 6, Diablo IV, and Final Fantasy XVI all coming in the surrounding weeks. The game launch is just part of what feels like a big The Lord of the Rings renaissance, with Amazon Prime's Rings of Power, new movies on the way, and, of course, the incredible LEGO Rivendell set.
Logan Plant is a freelance writer for IGN covering video game and entertainment news. He has over six years of experience in the gaming industry with bylines at IGN, Nintendo Wire, Switch Player Magazine, and Lifewire. Find him on Twitter @LoganJPlant.