Disappointing balance
Nearly 9 years have passed since the big announcement in 2016. Aside from the attempt to save New World, little tangible has emerged from Amazon Games: a game adaptation for the series “The Grand Tour Game” and a Twitch extension for Dragon’s Lair.
Spoiler: The list of projects that were prematurely canceled alongside Breakaway is longer. It also includes Nova, Intensity, and The Lord of the Rings MMO, which was supposed to be created in collaboration with the Chinese partner Leyou Technologies. Considering the size and ambitions of Amazon, this must be regarded as a disappointing balance.
The launch trailer for Lost Ark:
Escape into the role of publisher
If things don’t work out with their own games, perhaps they will with the products of other studios. Since the 2020s, Amazon Games has been using the experiences gained from New World to prepare Asian MMORPGs for the West and to distribute, promote, and support them here.
With Lost Ark, they were able to make an immediate impact, as the isometric MMORPG from Smilegate performed even better on Steam than New World. Two years later, the next game, Throne and Liberty, was released, this time from NCsoft. The hype upon launch was significantly weaker; currently there is no other MMORPG on Steam with so many active players.
A third collaboration with Bandai Namco, however, fell through because the anime MMORPG Blue Protocol was released with too many issues in its home market of Japan and was therefore shut down early. The three partnerships show, however, that Amazon Games obviously has the reputation of being a strong partner for the joint release of an online RPG on the global stage.
One must not forget: A large team is needed to handle the global launch of an MMORPG – including localization in multiple languages – and the ongoing service. Furthermore, these external games also benefit from the strong synergy with Twitch. In particular, Lost Ark was able to build tremendous hype through the involvement of many streamers.
The launch trailer for Throne and Liberty:
The harsh lot of the publisher
In parts of the MMORPG community, “Publisher Amazon Games” enjoys a similarly mixed reputation as “Developer Amazon Games.” One reason for this are the peculiarities that Asian MMORPGs like Lost Ark and Throne and Liberty bring with them, which cannot be eliminated even by the influence of a Western publisher.
Peculiarities such as Free2Play models with real money currencies linked to the respective auction houses. No matter what adjustments are made for the Western version: As long as this is the core of the payment model, there will always be criticism of Pay2Win elements and the high bot count.
And to whom is the criticism of the Western community directed? To Amazon Games. However, the publisher might have their hands tied regarding such essential matters. In the fight against bots, it also comes down to: The more restrictive the rules and the more drastic the measures, the more bots you catch, but the more innocent players also suffer.
Bots in Lost Ark:
In recent years, however, there have also been many errors that publisher Amazon Games had to take responsibility for. Do you remember when, at a Gamescom presentation of New World in 2021, a timeout was triggered on Twitch if “Lost Ark” was written in the chat? Apparently, someone wanted everyone to focus on New World.
It was also nice when announcements for New World accidentally ended up on the Lost Ark channels, and vice versa (via Reddit)? At times, reasonable patch notes were missing for Lost Ark updates, there were issues around a withheld roadmap that was already live in Russia, and other communication fails that regularly drove players up the wall.
However, the truth is also that Amazon Games can count on employees who are passionate about the games they manage. A good example of this is Globalization Design Manager Daniel Lafuente, who is frequently praised for clear communication under his monthly expenses of “Tico Talks,” even when he doesn’t have the expected information on hand.
So what does Amazon Games currently fail at?
This question certainly reflects the perspective of many players. Players who are upset about the untapped potential of New World. Genre fans who are dissatisfied with Amazon Games as the publisher of Lost Ark and Throne and Liberty. Players who may also wonder if Amazon Games had anything to do with the cancellation of Blue Protocol.
From a pure industry perspective, however, there are certainly successes to celebrate. Strong launch phases, for example, which likely came with high revenues. The willingness of other big players in the industry to collaborate with Amazon Games on important projects. Also, being able to work on brands like Tomb Raider and The Lord of the Rings (more on that shortly) is a success.
However, there are still no hits that are perceived by the wider mass of gamers as sustainable successes. At times, clear mistakes were made, whether in the development of New World or in communication with players.
At times, the focus on Asian MMORPGs was too strong, which have always had a hard time in the West due to their peculiarities. And then there were of course a number of projects that ultimately had to be canceled prematurely – but this is ultimately also the norm for the big players in the industry, just think of Blizzard: Blizzard’s secret survival game has been canceled
What does the future hold?
Lost Ark, Throne and Liberty, and New World are in maintenance mode. However, employees of Amazon Games are unlikely to be bored right now. According to Vice President Christoph Hartmann, ten games were in development in August 2024. This included Throne and Liberty and New World Aeternum. That leaves eight other projects. Known are:
- Publisher for the hack-and-slash co-op game King of Meat
- Publisher for a story-based open-world racing game from Maverick Games
- Publisher for the new Tomb Raider game from Crystal Dynamics
- Developer of the new MMORPG for the Lord of the Rings universe
What stands out here: Amazon Games seems to see itself more in the role of publisher and co-developer in the future – while wanting to diversify and not just focus on MMOs. One possible reason for the few in-house developments: The many setbacks have left their mark. Another: They want to focus and do what they do as well as possible.
Meanwhile, they are daring to take on another large MMO. An MMO that likely carries enormous expectations due to the popular “The Lord of the Rings” franchise. The hype surrounding New World was probably just a slight breeze in comparison. This will surely be exciting.
If the developers of New World can learn the right lessons and deliver a strong Lord of the Rings experience, then the hit should be guaranteed. Amazon definitely brings the foundation for that. However, if that does not succeed, Amazon Games will reinforce the current image of a somewhat lucky or unsuccessful developer.
However, it will be a few more years before the final launch takes place. In the summer of 2024, they were still in a kind of conception phase to figure out what special twist they can give the MMORPG so that they don’t just copy Lord of the Rings Online or other already existing games in the franchise. More on this here: There is a sign of life from the new MMORPG for Lord of the Rings from Amazon Games.
- 1
- 2
