Reports suggest Amazon has cancelled its Lord of the Rings MMO project, which it announced will be free to play in 2018. The project is believed to have been cancelled due to a dispute with Chinese gaming giant Tencent. The statements also said that the contract had been broken and that they could not find a “guarantee” to improve the game.
Lord of the Rings MMO project cancelled
According to a Bloomberg report, the cancellation of the project was due to a dispute between Amazon and Tencent. Tencent’s acquisition of Leyou in December 2020 reportedly sparked the dispute. Lord of the Rings MMO contract talks between Amazon and Tencent are said to have broken down following the acquisition of Leyou, which owns Warframe developer Digital Extremes and Dirty Bomb developer Splash Damage.
An Amazon spokesman said, “At this time, we cannot guarantee the terms to continue with this game.” He added:“We love Lord of the Rings IP and are disappointed that we won’t be able to offer this game to customers”
The Amazon team that developed the game will reportedly move to other projects. Lord of the Rings MMO was first announced in September 2018 by Athlon and its beneficiary, Middle-earth Enterprises. Athlon said at the time that he and a “co-developer” had developed an online game “long before the Lord of the Rings events, where fans of the Tolkien universe would explore lands, people and creatures never seen before.”
Image: New World MMORPG
In addition to co-developing the game, Amazon Game Studios would promote and stream the game in the global market, with the exception of the Chinese distribution to be handled by Leyou. Studio Vice President Christoph Hartmann said in 2019:
“Tolkien’s Middle World is one of the richest fictional worlds in history and gives our team of experienced MMO developers — the studio that developed New World — a tremendous opportunity to play and create.”
The company, which is also set to launch New World in August 2021, is working on a multiplayer game and several unannounced projects with some of the core team behind Rainbow Six Siege last month. You can also express your opinions in the comments.
