According to Amazon, the game is unrelated to the show, but there will be at least one key similarity. While Amazon has kept pretty quiet about the series, we know it will take place in the Second Age, which predates Tolkein's most well-known novels. According to Athlon Games, the game will also be set "at a time long before the events of The Lord of the Rings." It's likely Amazon Game Studios chose that time to help distinguish its title from The Lord of the Rings Online, another massive online multiplayer game. And while it's supposedly coincidental that both the Amazon series and game will explore the Second Age, it will be interesting to see how each approaches that lesser-known time.

To pull this off, Amazon Game Studios is partnering with PC gaming company Leyou. As you might remember, last fall, Leyou-owned Athlon Games announced that it had reached an agreement with Middle-earth Enterprises to develop and publish a Lord of the Rings video game. But at the time, it said only that it was working with "a partner." While we know this game will be free-to-play and available on PCs and consoles, we don't know yet when it will be ready, and it's too soon to say which will arrive first, the game or the show.