Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor and Shadow of War hit Switch 2

Nintendo’s US store now lists a Middle-earth: Shadow Bundle for Nintendo Switch 2 with a release date of 30 September, published by Aspyr. The bundle collects two open-world games set between The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings: Shadow of Mordor in its Game of the Year Edition and Shadow of War in its Definitive Edition, the pair coming to a Nintendo platform for the first time.

The prices, from Nintendo’s own listing

The store’s own pricing record puts the bundle at $34.99 against a regular $69.99, a 50% cut that ends on 6 October. Bought separately, Shadow of Mordor: Game of the Year Edition is $9.99 down from $19.99 and Shadow of War: Definitive Edition is $24.99 down from $49.99 — both also half price, and both also running to the same 6 October cut-off. The discounts sit on the pre-order window rather than on a sale, so anyone waiting for a review embargo to lift will pay full price for the privilege.

What has not been announced

These are United States prices and the only storefront carrying the bundle so far. Nintendo’s European catalogue returns no listing for either game, and Aspyr has published no British or euro pricing, so anyone outside North America is still guessing at what the bundle will cost. Nothing has been said about a physical release either: both pages are download-only.

The one thing that has aged well

Shadow of War’s Nemesis System — the machinery that remembers which orc killed you and promotes it for the trouble — is the part of these games that still has no real rival, and Nintendo’s own trailer leads on it. It is also the reason the ports are more interesting than most catalogue re-releases: the system needs persistent state and a fair amount of processing, which is exactly the sort of thing that would have been embarrassing on the original Switch.

Our opinion

Warner Bros. let two of the most mechanically original games of the last decade sit still for years, and the cheapest way to bring them back is to hand them to the studio that already ports everything else. That is what this is, and the half-price pre-order is the tell: Aspyr and Nintendo want the money before anyone has seen the Switch 2 build running. The case for it is real — these are long games with a lot of systems, they have never been portable on a Nintendo machine, and a bundle at $34.99 is a fair price for both. The case against is that a Nemesis System port is exactly the kind of thing that arrives with a 30-frame ceiling and a locked 720p, and no one will be able to say until the 30 September release lands. Buying a month of goodwill at 50% off is good business, but it is not a review.