Since it arrived on PlayStation and Epic last year, The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria from Free Range Games and North Beach Games has amassed a dedicated following among survival game enthusiasts. Return to Moria allows players to become dwarven warriors and craftsmen who must reclaim the ruined mines of Moria. At long last, the game will finally arrive on Xbox Series S|X and Steam on August 27. That same day, the "Golden Update" will deliver cross-play co-op to all versions of the game.

We're always excited for the chance to return to Middle Earth, even if the style and quality of the games based on Tolkein's LOTR universe vary wildly. The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria from Free Range Games and North Beach Games first launched on the Epic Games Store for PC, and now the PlayStation 5 version is finally available as well. Are you ready to descend into the mines of Moria with your online co-op friends?

The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria from Free Range Games and North Beach Games is a real "monkey's paw" situation. We wished for a new cooperative LOTR game, and we're getting one! That's good. But it will be a survival/crafting game in which players have to manage hunger and all that busywork. Not as good! Still, the game has a strong premise and a cool universe to its name, so we'll keep an open mind. Also, whereas Return to Moria was initially announced for PC only,  it will now be launching on Xbox Series and PlayStation 5 consoles too!

We all know that co-op gaming was invented in 2003 by Al Gore. The back of that placemat in IHOP told us so. It turns out, however, that some really smart computer people managed to pull off some crafty multiplayer tricks back in the 1970s, creating some of the first video games with co-op modes. And then there's us, the spoiled gamers that we ...