Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor represents a new direction for games based on the fantasy universe of J.R.R. Tolkien, with an original story that takes it in the direction of stealth combat, mind control, moral ambiguity — and Batman. Our hands-on preview with this game, which will debut on multiple platforms on Oct. 7, shows just how far Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment is going toward providing Tolkien fans with something they’ve never seen before.
Michael de Plater, Shadow of Mordor
Shadow of Mordor is an important game for Warner Bros. as it tries to drum up interest in the Tolkien universe by going beyond the Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit movies and toward original stories within known properties. WBIE is trying to expand the property for a time when it will no longer be able to cash in purely on tie-ins with Peter Jackson’s multibillion-dollar movies.
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Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.
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