Amazon announced in 2019 that it was developing a new MMO based on “The Lord of the Rings,” which would surely have looked magnificent alongside the new television series “The Rings of Power.” However, the project was suddenly canceled in 2021. Now, Amazon’s gaming chief explains why it went wrong.
What kind of project was it? Amazon announced in July 2019 that it was developing an MMO alongside a new TV series based on “The Lord of the Rings”:
- The game was supposed to take place before the “Lord of the Rings” movies and books, be Free2Play, and be released for PC and consoles
- The game was to be developed by the Chinese company “Leyou,” which also owned Warframe developer Digital Extremes
- For 2 years, there were occasional updates about the project: It was said it would become a major AAA title. But then in April 2021, the sad news came: Amazon had canceled the project.
The new TV series is currently a topic of conversation worldwide:
Tencent and Amazon were both too big to work together
Here is the new information: Now, Amazon Gaming chief Christoph Hermann spoke with GameSpot about the end of the MMO.
He said: When Leyou was acquired by the tech giant Tencent, things began to get “very complicated.” Ultimately, Amazon decided to let the project go and move on:
We had a deal with a company in Hong Kong, Leyou. I believe it would have been great to work with them. But Leyou was bought by Tencent, and things got very complicated.
Christop Hartmann, Amazon Games President
According to Hartmann, the rights holder, Middle-earth Enterprises, had secured a clause in the contract that allowed them to terminate the deal if one of the partners was acquired: When Tencent purchased Leyou, Middle-earth Enterprises invoked the clause, and things stopped.
Hartmann said: He believed it was possible to continue developing the “Lord of the Rings” MMO, but after the negotiations dragged on, Amazon ended it.
Ultimately, Hartmann said, Amazon and Tencent were too big companies to work together on a project and develop a game. So they decided it was better not to collaborate. It would have just taken too long.
With the huge success of the series “The Rings of Power” on Amazon Prime, some at Amazon might wish things had gone a bit differently back then. A new MMO based on The Lord of the Rings would certainly be highly sought after by Amazon right now:
2 new trailers for Dungeons & Dragons and The Lord of the Rings make fantasy MMORPGs exciting again
