Amazon Games announced today, on May 15, that they are indeed developing a new MMORPG based on The Lord of the Rings. They had previously introduced such a game in 2019 but then canceled it, much to the disappointment of MMORPG fans. The online role-playing game is now set to be released for PC and consoles. By “consoles,” it apparently means PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X.
Here are the 3 most important facts about the new game based on The Lord of the Rings:
- The game has no name and no release date yet.
- The new game will take place in the persistent world of “Middle-earth” and will cover stories from the novel trilogy “The Lord of the Rings” and “The Hobbit.” There is no connection to the Amazon series “Rings of Power,” which takes place at an earlier point in Tolkien’s universe.
- Leading the development of the MMORPG will be the team that was already responsible for the Steam hit “New World.”
Amazon is increasingly dedicated to “The Lord of the Rings”:
What the developers say: Both the developers and the rights holders emphasize that they want to create a high-quality game that will excite fans of The Lord of the Rings and do justice to the brand:
- Amazon emphasizes how exciting they find the brand “The Lord of the Rings.”
- The representatives of Middle-earth rave about how Amazon has proven it can create immersive worlds and present them to a large audience.
A similar project was planned back in 2019 but was canceled
Wasn’t this already planned?
Amazon announced back in 2019 that they were developing a new MMO based on The Lord of the Rings. It was supposed to take place before the films and function as a “Free2Play” game. They planned to collaborate with the company “Leyou” from Hong Kong, which held the rights.
However, the project fell apart in 2021 when the Chinese competitor Tencent acquired the company that was supposed to develop the game. The company “Leyou” invoked a clause to exit the project.
The responsible man at Amazon, Christoph Hartmann, a German, stated that while they could have still managed the project, they found it too complicated at Amazon Games to come to an agreement with the major competitor Tencent and preferred to withdraw.
But now the opportunity has arisen again to develop a “Lord of the Rings” MMORPG, and Amazon has seized this chance.
Could become the most important new MMORPG since 2014
Why is this exciting? Since the major successes of Destiny (2014), Witcher 3 (2015), and Black Desert (2016), it is known that gamers on consoles are longing for a deep MMORPG with an open world and an action combat system where they can spend a lot of time.
Publishers have since aimed in a “Dark Fantasy MMORPG” direction, but have not managed to land anything on consoles yet. In Asia, the efforts to develop such a game were interrupted, especially by the mobile hype starting in 2016/2017. In Europe, practically no MMORPGs of such dimensions are being developed anymore.
Amazon has proven that they can head in the direction of “Open World/Action-MMORPG” with New World.
The new game based on The Lord of the Rings now has 3 advantages over New World:
- The team and technology are tested – they already have a game on the market and have survived the first challenging weeks after such a release.
- The new game has even greater market potential than New World, as Amazon is now considering PS5 and Xbox Series X, both consoles where there is huge demand for MMORPGs, but so far only The Elder Scrolls Online and Black Desert offer something.
- The Lord of the Rings is one of the biggest brands in the world and guarantees huge attention just for that reason.
When could the game be released? That’s the downside. If the game is now in an “early development stage,” one can probably expect a release at the earliest between 2028 and 2030.
For those looking for a new MMORPG until then:
The 5 new MMOs and MMORPGs for 2023 with the best prospects
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