A new report states that Amazon still intends on releasing a new Lord Of The Rings game, but it won’t be the once promised MMO.
The saga of Amazon’s efforts to release a dedicated Lord Of The Rings MMO has been a vague yet baffling one. Initially, the project was announced back in 2019, only to be cancelled in 2021 after developer Leyou was bought out by Tencent.
Amazon later revived the project in 2023, when it was to be developed in-house at Amazon Games Orange County, the studio behind Amazon’s New World MMO… but that was before over 14,000 employees, including members of Amazon’s games division, were let go last year.
One affected employee suggested that at that time the Lord Of The Rings MMO had died a second death but only now, seven months later, does that seem to have been proven true.
This comes from Amazon’s head of games Jeff Grattis in a statement provided to Eurogamer, although no reason was provided for why it was cancelled. Instead, Grattis only adds that Amazon is still looking into releasing a new Lord Of The Rings game.
‘Our creative team continues to explore a compelling new game experience that does justice to Tolkien’s world; we are working closely with Middle-earth and remain excited about the IP,’ says Grattis.
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Despite Amazon pulling back from game development, it makes sense that it still wants to capitalise on the Lord Of The Rings franchise. Currently, it’s in the process of making a third season of its Rings Of Power TV show, which airs this November.
A tie-in game based on the show always seemed like an obvious choice, but for some reason Amazon has long been obsessed with MMOs, not just in terms of New World but also acting as international publisher for Korean titles Lost Ark and Throne And Liberty.
New World is shutting down in January 2027 and according to an anonymous source who spoke with Eurogamer, Amazon was ‘ramping everybody off New World’ and onto the Lord Of The Rings game just weeks before the mass lay-offs last year.
This suggests Amazon might’ve shut down New World regardless, in order to prioritise the Lord Of The Rings MMO, which only ever made it to the pre-production stage before its cancellation.
It was reported last month that Crystal Dynamics is currently working on a new Lord Of The Rings game, which could be what Grattis is referring to in his statement.
Crystal Dynamics and Amazon are currently working together on two Tomb Raider games so it’s a believe rumour, though you’d think Crystal Dynamics would rein in how many projects it’s doing when the studio’s suffered such frequent lay-offs.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 developer Warhorse Studios is also rumoured to be working on a Lord Of The Rings game and while the studio hasn’t corroborated these rumours, it’s not denied them either.
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