Another Amazon Games title cancelled, this time it’s that Lord of the Rings MMO. No, the other one.
Announced in 2019, Amazon Games apparently planned to release their officially licensed LOTR MMO some time around 2023, but, according to Bloomberg, the game has been cancelled due to a contract dispute with Tencent. Tencent purchased developer Leyou Technologies back in December and Amazon has “been unable to secure terms to proceed”.
The game probably would have served as a great tie-in with Amazon’s upcoming LOTR TV series even though they reportedly had nothing to do with each other.
Amazon Games has been having a rough time of late, shame. Their first major original title Crucible limped to cancellation in October 2020, after a lacklustre beta phase, and upcoming MMORPG New World, currently due to launch on 31 August, has been delayed multiple times. Set in a fantasy-fiction version of the 1600s, New World allows players to work together to colonise an America-ish island in the Atlantic. Everyone loves colonisation, right? What could go wrong?
For LOTR fans, at least The Lord of the Rings Online still exists (although it is a bit old now) and The Lord of the Rings: Gollum is due out next year. There is no official release date for the TV series, yet.