Middle-earth: Shadow of War, the highly anticipated sequel to 2014’s Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, has had its scheduled release date delayed to October 10 2017, several months back from its originally planned August release.  Developer Monolith Productions announced the reschedule today in a blog post on the WB Games forums, explaining the delay with the following:

Middle-earth: Shadow of War expands gameplay in every dimension, including the massive open world, the story, the RPG systems, and personal player stories of the Nemesis System. As with Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, Monolith is committed to delivering the highest quality experience. In order to do this, we have made the difficult decision to move our launch date to ensure that Middle-earth: Shadow of War will deliver on that promise.

We understand that it might be disappointing to have to wait a little longer for the release and are sorry for the delay, but we are working hard to make an amazing game. We’re excited to show more at E3.

So, what all could they be adding to the game that’s necessitating this delay?  From what we know about Middle-earth: Shadow of War so far, there are a number of new features coming in this sequel that could potentially be responsible.  For one, we know that Shadow of War will be more about an actual war, rather than just the story of one man’s assault on hordes of enemy Uruks; promotional materials for the game repeatedly mention that the player will “forge their own army” and “conquer fortresses”, meaning that large-scale battles will likely be something to look forward to, as well as some sort of potential territory system.

We also know from trailers and gameplay previews that there will be drake-riding, balrogs, a new ring of power,  new characters, and more, not to mention the return and improvement of the prequel’s highly-praised Nemesis System, which gives enemies depth and personality and is credited by many as being responsible for the success and originality of the first Middle-earth title.  As for how this will all work together in Shadow of War, we’ll have to wait until E3 rolls around to know for sure.

We will have writers on the ground representing MXDWN Games at this year’s E3, so stay tuned for more information on Middle-earth: Shadow of War once the expo begins.  In the meantime, you can head over to shadowofwar.com and marvel at the ridiculous amount of content that will be included in the $300 Mithril Edition of the game.