In September, the Chinese company Leyou Technologies announced that it is working on a new Lord of the Rings MMO. This apparently piqued Amazon’s interest, as they are now entering development.
What is Amazon planning? According to its own press report, Amazon’s Game Studio will be involved in the development of the recently announced Lord of the Rings MMO.
Developers from the in-house game New World are also expected to be involved. Additionally, the team includes veterans who have previously worked on Everquest, Rift, World of Warcraft, and other popular MMOs.
The exact nature of the collaboration with Athlon, Leyou Technologies’ subsidiary, has not been described. No release date has been mentioned either.
What kind of new MMO is this? The new Lord of the Rings game is set to be free-to-play. It will be released on both PC and consoles.
The story is expected to take place before the Lord of the Rings films and books and to lead up to these events. This is supposed to prevent any conflict with the already existing MMORPG Lord of the Rings Online.
What is the game’s relation to the new series on Amazon? Both the new MMO and the new series on Amazon are set to take place well before the books and include their own stories and creatures.
However, the press release emphasized that both projects are being developed independently. Nevertheless, the MMO could serve as good advertising for the very expensive series.
How experienced are the developers of the MMO? The developer Athlon belongs to the Chinese company Leyou Technologies. This company also owns the developer Digital Extremes, which developed the game Warframe. It is considered one of the fairest free-to-play games on the market.
Together with Amazon’s server technology and their experience for the Western market, the Lord of the Rings MMO could become a good game.
The currently developing New World is well received by many. While some still complain about the slow combat system, the performance, graphics, and Amazon’s willingness to adapt are highly praised.
Work on the old Lord of the Rings MMORPG continues. In June, the latest update was released:
