Tales of the Shire Has Steep System Requirements for a Cozy Game

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Tales of the Shire‘s official system requirements have been revealed, and they are surprisingly demanding for a cozy, Animal Crossing-style life simulator. Developed by Weta Workshop, Tales of the Shire: A Lord of the Rings Game is being described as a laid-back, cozy experience set in Tolkien’s Middle-Earth.

Tales of the Shire has undergone multiple delays since its announcement back in early 2024, but the title now has a confirmed release date of July 29, a couple of weeks from now. A new trailer was released just a month ago, showcasing the idyllic, day-to-day life of a Hobbit. Gameplay-wise, Tales of the Shire appears to be quite similar to Animal Crossing: New Horizons, with helping the townsfolk of Bywater build up their settlement from a quaint town to a thriving village as the overarching goal. Early impressions indicate the game has no combat to speak of, and focuses exclusively on delivering a casual, relaxed gameplay loop, which involves house decoration, gardening, farming, fishing, foraging, and trading with the locals.PC system requirements for Tales of the Shire on Steam were revealed yesterday, and many were taken aback by how steep they are. The minimum specs demand an Intel Core i5-7600K and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770 equivalent, whereas the recommended specs require an Intel Core i5-10600 and RTX 3060 Ti equivalents. According to the additional notes on the Steam page, the minimum requirements only promise 1080p at 30 FPS, and even with the recommended hardware, the game is expected to run at 1080p and 60 FPS. Additionally, 16 GB of RAM is a common requirement for both presets.

Tales of the Shire System Requirements

The hardware requirements for Tales of the Shire come as a surprise, especially considering that from the promotional material shown so far, the graphical fidelity and the scope of the title do not appear to justify such a jump. Games with a similar aesthetic and art style, like Palia, Disney Dreamlight Valley, Tiny Glade, and others, do not require anywhere close to what this game is asking for to run comfortably. Even the PC requirements for Hell Is Us and Lost Soul Aside, two upcoming titles that are clearly more graphically demanding than Tales of the Shire, do not call for a 3060 Ti to run at 1080p 60 FPS. Stranger still, the title is only reported requiring 3 GB of available space, a detail that would typically suggest the game is optimized for low-end PCs.

Excitement surrounding Tales of the Shire has picked up in the lead-up to the game’s release, but high system demands might force many PC players who don’t meet the minimum threshold to forgo getting a copy. Crucially, Tales of the Shire has not revealed PC hardware requirements for anything above 1080p 60 FPS, so even those who do meet the prerequisites might still hesitate to purchase the title if it is revealed that going up to 1440p or 4k at 144Hz or above is unrealistic.