Shadow of Mordor and Shadow of War Head to Switch 2 on September 30 in a $70 Bundle That Is Already Half Off

By CriticalPixel · 2026-09-23

Warner Bros. owns a patent on the Nemesis system that runs until 2036, and it closed the studio that built it, so a true sequel to Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor and Shadow of War looks unlikely for a long time. Aspyr is filling the gap the only way it can, by porting the old games. Both titles are heading to Nintendo Switch 2 on September 30, sold together as the Middle-earth: Shadow Bundle. Eurogamer reported the news today, and it lands in a season already packed with games. The good news is that the games are worth replaying. The awkward news is the sticker price, which deserves a hard look before anyone hits pre-order.

Official Steam screenshot from Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor showing Talion in combat

What the Shadow Bundle Actually Contains

Here is what is confirmed. Both games launch on September 30, and the bundle carries all previously released DLC, according to Eurogamer's report. Aspyr appears to have handled the conversions, which matters because the same company recently remastered the Lord of the Rings co-op game War in the North. The bundle is up for pre-order at 50 percent off, and without the discount it sells for 62.99 pounds in the UK and $70 in the US. A Nintendo-focused fan account put the discounted US price at $34.99 for the pre-launch window. Aspyr's homepage links out to a Nintendo Store listing titled Middle-earth: Shadow Bundle for Nintendo Switch 2, though that page sat behind an age gate and gave me no price or spec details when I opened it.

That gate points at the gap in the announcement. Nothing I could read spells out frame rates, resolution, load times or whether either game runs better than it did on PS4 and Xbox One. Nothing I could read says whether a physical edition exists either. Both games are also listed on Steam, so the PC versions remain the reference point for anyone who wants to compare. Until Aspyr or Nintendo publishes performance details, treat the port quality as unknown rather than assumed. That is a strange thing to leave blank a week before launch, and it is the kind of silence that makes careful buyers wait for reviews.

The Price Is the Real Story

Let's talk about $70. Eurogamer reviewed Shadow of Mordor in 2015 and Shadow of War in 2017, so this is a bundle of two games that are years old, and the undiscounted price would ask a full new release fee for them. The 50 percent pre-order cut brings it to $34.99, which works out to about $17.50 per game with every DLC pack included. That is a fair number for two big open-world action games, and it is also proof that the $70 figure is a decoy. A price that nobody is meant to pay exists to make $35 feel generous, and Switch 2 owners have seen enough of that pattern already. Nothing in the reporting says how long the discount lasts past launch day, so the pre-order window is the only price anyone can count on.

Official Steam screenshot from Middle-earth: Shadow of War showing a fortress battle

Why These Two Games Still Matter

In its 2015 review, Eurogamer's Aoife Wilson praised the procedural Nemesis system, where enemies level up after they beat you and climb through their own ranks. That system turned an otherwise passable open-world action game into something that felt fresh. Johnny Chiodini reviewed Shadow of War in 2017 and felt the improved gameplay was let down by a dreadful story. The Nemesis system has stayed a standout ever since, and few games have tried anything similar. Eurogamer points to the Lich system in Warframe and, maybe, the NPC relationships in Watch Dogs: Legion as the rare exceptions. The likely reason is the patent, which Warner Bros. holds until 2036. Monolith, the studio behind both games, closed in 2025, and its in-development Wonder Woman game was cancelled with it.

So these ports are not just nostalgia bait. They are the only way to play the best version of a mechanic that nobody else is allowed to copy, on a handheld you can carry to bed. That is the real pitch, and it is a better one than the marketing will probably admit. It also shows how much the industry has lost when the strongest feature of a two-game series is locked behind a legal filing while its creators are gone. Warner Bros. sat on a system players loved and then closed the studio. Aspyr getting to sell the leftovers is at least better than the games vanishing from shelves.

What Players Are Saying

Reaction is limited so far, and the thread I read is in Turkish on a fan account, so treat it as a small sample rather than a verdict. Inside it, replies split hard. One user called it great news and asked why Red Dead Redemption 2 still is not on the console. Another asked whether they really sell games this old for $70, which is the undiscounted price doing the damage I described above. One user told people to stay away because Aspyr's recent Lord of the Rings release was full of silly bugs by their account, and another wished the publisher would ship a 60 FPS patch for the console. One reply joked that third-party ports will bankrupt Switch 2 owners. Excited, suspicious and broke is a reasonable read on the room.

Second official Steam screenshot from Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor

The CriticalPixel Take

I like this port and I distrust how it was announced. Two good games with all their DLC for about $35 is a solid deal, and the Nemesis system still has no real rival, so there is a genuine reason to be pleased. But announcing a September 30 launch with no performance details, no clear physical plans and a $70 anchor price reads like a publisher hoping pre-orders arrive before scrutiny does. Aspyr also has a job to do on trust, because the complaints about its recent Lord of the Rings release are the first thing some players reached for. If the ports run at a stable frame rate in handheld mode, this becomes an easy recommendation. If they run rough, half off will not save it.

My advice is simple. Pre-order only if you already know you want both games and can live with an unproven port. Everyone else should wait for hands-on impressions in the week of launch, because the discount can wait a few days and a bad port cannot be undone. And if you never played these, the price of entry has never been lower, so the games are the easy part. It is the bundle's silence on the details that deserves the side-eye.