Middle-earth: Shadow of War is currently free to play on Prime Gaming, but there’s a catch

Amazon’s Prime Gaming is currently offering three games from The Lord of the Rings universe. Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor GOTY Edition leads the line-up, with its sequel Middle-earth: Shadow of War also up for grabs.

While that sounds great on paper, Middle-earth: Shadow of War is only available to play via Amazon Luna. For those unfamiliar with Luna, it is Amazon’s cloud gaming platform. Shadow of Mordor is a great game and with Luna free for Prime members, it is a good deal regardless. However, it is a bummer for Prime members in countries where Amazon Luna is not available.

The silver lining is that its prequel, Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor is free for PC, meaning players can claim and download it without any requirement of Amazon Luna. However, there’s a catch for some regions attached to Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor as well. Prime Gaming stated in their blog that Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor will not be available to claim in Japan and South Korea, but the reason was not stated.

LEGO The Lord of the Rings is also free to claim right now, with no region-specific restriction here. Both Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor and the LEGO title are available via GOG.

Prime Gaming announced that these games have been offered to celebrate the upcoming season 2 of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. The series is exclusively available on Amazon Prime Video, and season 2 is dropping tomorrow, August 29.