Amazon Has Canceled The Announced 'Lord Of The Rings' MMORPG
Image Source: MUBI
In 2023, it was announced that Amazon Game Studios would be making an MMORPG with Embracer Group based on The Lord of the Rings. The game has now been cancelled, among a wave of layoffs across the company that will impact 14,000 positions.
One of those affected by the layoffs is Amazon Games engineer Ashleigh Amrine, who shared the news of the cancellation. “This morning I was part of the layoffs at Amazon Games,” she shared, “alongside my incredibly talented peers on New World and our fledgling Lord of the Rings game (Y’all would have loved it).”
The game was to be a new experience within Tolkien’s mythology, with Amazon Games CEO Christoph Hartmann revealing in 2024, “We’re still trying to find the hook, find the idea of what it is because we don’t just want to go and do the same thing over. While it’s tempting sometimes with an existing IP, that’s not the point of doing it. You’ve got to find a fresh twist… So it’s a little bit early.”
This is the second time Amazon has tried to get a Lord of the Rings MMO off the ground. Back in 2019, the first attempt was announced to be developed by the New World team of Amazon Games Orange County. It was scrapped, much like the second attempt, less than two years later. That time, via contract complications with Tencent. The layoffs affecting this second attempt are part of a broader strategic pivot at Amazon.
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In a statement from Steve Boom, head of Amazon’s Audio, Twitch, and Games divisions, he revealed, “Over the last several months, we’ve been evaluating our go-forward plans, specifically through the lens of our mission to deliver the very best gaming experiences to customers while leaning into the things that Amazon does best. While we’re proud of our successes in first-party AAA game development and publishing, we have made the difficult decision to halt a significant amount of our first-party AAA game development work – specifically around MMOs – within Amazon Game Studios.”
Though the MMO might be cancelled, there’s still an opportunity to explore Middle-earth in an interactive medium. Tales of the Shire provides a relaxing time within The Shire, while the much-maligned Gollum puts players in control of the deformed being in an adventure before the events of the books.
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Source: Collider
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