Shadow of Mordor's Release Moved Up to September

There's release date news today for the promising-looking new Lord of the Rings game from Monolith Productions, Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, but don't worry--it's not getting delayed. Publisher Warner Bros. today announced it will now release in North America on September 30 for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3, with a release on PC coming worldwide two days later, on October 2.

That's a move forward by only one week (it was previously set for October 7), but it does get the game in our hands sooner, which I don't imagine Lord of the Rings fans will complain about. Warner Bros. said in today's announcement that it's doing this "[b]ased on hearing fans' excitement over the latest chronicle in Middle-earth."

What Warner Bros. doesn't note is the added benefit of getting out of an extremely crowded October for game releases--and away from October 7, which was at one point set to also be the release day for Alien: Isolation, Dragon Age: Inquisition, Driveclub, NBA 2K15, NBA Live 15, and Project Spark. Inquisition's recent delay until November means that day is now two games lighter.

This week, October also lost the release of Battlefield Hardline (now coming next year), but lest you think otherwise, there's still plenty coming in the month leading up to Halloween, including Super Smash Bros. for 3DS, Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel, Evolve, Civilization: Beyond Earth, Assassin's Creed Unity, and Sunset Overdrive. (Remarkably, that isn't a comprehensive list even if you include the aforementioned October 7 games.)

A Shadow of Mordor panel is scheduled to take place today at San Diego Comic-Con at 12:30 PM PT. We'll report back should anything of note be revealed during the talk.

Shadow of Mordor was originally announced last November. It's a single-player-only game that puts players in role of Talion, a ranger who is able to use powers allowing him to teleport and take control of enemies. Among its most ambitious features is the Nemesis system, which allows your actions with specific enemies to influence how future interactions with them play out. Unfortunately for those on last-gen hardware, the feature will be scaled back for the game's release on Xbox 360 and PS3. For more on the game, check out our latest preview.

Does Shadow of Mordor coming sooner than expected have any impact on which games you plan on buying this fall? Let us know in the comments.