The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is one of the most expensive TV shows of all time. Its first season cost over $600 million to make, which is far more than the budgets of some blockbuster films. Given how much money Amazon poured into The Rings of Power, it was expected that the series would break viewership records, and fortunately, it did just that. Although it was met with largely negative reception from fans, The Rings of Power attracted very large audiences. The show’s first season, which launched in September 2022, was watched by 150 million users worldwide, according to recent statistics.
Since it’s being produced by Amazon, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is exclusive to Prime Video. This streaming service is, for the record, pretty much the only one that has exclusive LotR content. Even Prime Video’s biggest competitor, Netflix, doesn’t have any The Lord of the Rings shows of its own. Although the original The Lord of the Rings trilogy is available on Netflix in select countries, there is an overall lack of new LotR content on it. Netflix could at least make up for this absence by putting Tales of the Shire, an upcoming The Lord of the Rings video game, on its subscription service, but it seems like this won’t happen.
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Tales of the Shire’s Art Style Is Already a Great Lesson for LotR Games
Tales of the Shire’s unique art style creates a great opportunity for Lord of the Rings games to venture outside of familiar territory with the IP.
Tales of the Shire Could Have Been Netflix’s Counter to Rings of Power
A lot of people may not be aware of this, but Netflix actually offers a sizable selection of video games, in addition to movies and TV shows. Netflix’s catalog of games is pretty limited, as it’s only available on mobile devices, but it’s still worth taking a look at. All Netflix members, regardless of the plan they’re subscribed to, have access to these games at no extra cost, and to sweeten the deal even further, every title on the service is ad-free and has zero microtransactions.
Some of Netflix’s games are exclusive to its service and/or were made by the company itself, such as Squid Game: Unleashed and The Queen’s Gambit Chess. Others, however, are direct ports of console games, like Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, Sonic Mania, Katana Zero, and Oxenfree 2. Given that Tales of the Shire is also a console game, it would fit just fine among this catalog of titles.
Tales of the Shire Would Be a Perfect Fit for Netflix, But It’s Not Coming to the Service
For those who are unaware, Tales of the Shire: A The Lord of the Rings Game is a cozy life sim that lets players step into the shoes of hobbits and maintain their own little villages in the Shire. Unlike the Middle-Earth games from Monolith Productions, Tales of the Shire has a cartoony, colorful art style that’s somewhat similar to Animal Crossing and Story of Seasons. The game is being developed by Weta Workship, the company best known for making the physical effects for Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings movies.
Tales of the Shire is going to launch on March 25, 2025, and it will be available on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch, and Windows PC. It, however, will not be playable through any subscription services, on consoles, or otherwise. The fact that Tales of the Shire isn’t on Netflix, in particular, is rather disappointing, as it seems like the one game that would be perfect for the platform. Thanks to its unrealistic art style, Tales of the Shire would probably run quite well on mobile phones. Plus, since it’s a cozy, low-stakes game, it would be suitable for on-the-go gaming.
It would have been great if Netflix had signed a deal with Weta Workshop and publisher Private Division to develop mobile phone ports of Tales of the Shire exclusively for the platform, but unfortunately, that didn’t happen. The game probably wouldn’t have generated nearly as much traffic as The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power did on Prime Video, but it would’ve at least made up for Netflix’s lack of LotR content.
Life Simulation
RPG
Adventure
- Released
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March 25, 2025
- Developer(s)
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Wētā Workshop