Amazon Games Lord of the Rings MMO likely canceled: Report

It looks like Amazon made a major announcement regarding its video game development studio, Amazon Games. As per a new report, the company has possibly canceled its Lord of the Rings MMO game. The company first revealed the title in 2019 on the global stage in a partnership with Athlon Games and Leyou. Looking back at the initial announcement, Amazon noted that the game was supposed to be set on the book version of The Lord of the Rings from J.R.R. Tolkien. The cancellation report also shared the details around the circumstances of the move. Let’s check everything we know around the cancellation of the Lord of the Rings MMO from Amazon Games.

Amazon Lord of the Rings MMO possibly scrapped; details

According to a report from Bloomberg, Amazon Games canceled the title because of a problem in the contract with the developer. As noted above, the company was not making the title in-house. Instead, it had teamed up with Athlon Games and Leyou to make the Lord of the Rings, MMO. However, during the middle of the development, Tencent acquired Leyou Technologies back in December 2020. Post the acquisition, Tencent and Amazon could not figure out the details around the development of the title. As part of the move, Amazon Games will move its internal development team to other games currently under development.

Talking about the details of the Lord of the Rings MMO, this free-to-play title was expected to land on gaming consoles and the PC. It is also worth noting that Leyou is also behind Digital Extremes (Warframe) and Splash Damage (Gears Tactics). Looking at the track record of Amazon Games, the company has already canceled four titles including Breakaway and Crucible. Besides the game cancellations, the game development studio has already delayed its upcoming MMO, New Worlds.

The report also noted Amazon Games “has been unable to” launch a successful title since its launch in 2014. This information surfaced just weeks after Amazon Games launched a new game development studio in Montreal, Canada. It plans on working on new AAA games to carve a way forward. Finally, one should also note that the game industry veterans behind Rainbow Six Siege are part of the new studio.