At the top of Amazon Games is German manager Christoph Hartmann, who has grand plans. He wants the new LOTR MMORPG to become the “largest MMO” and that is supposed to be done by the team that has already been through so much with “New World” (Steam). But Hartmann sees that as an advantage.
Who is speaking? Christoph Hartmann was born in Rosenheim. His parents worked as dentists, but he was not keen on staring into farmers’ mouths for 40 years, he said (via gamespot). He is someone who calls his dog “Sissi”, after the film series.
As a teenager, he fell in love with American culture, also because an American trained him in basketball. Hence, he completed an exchange year in Malone, New York, when he was 18.
Hartmann worked as a DJ during his economics studies in Munich and thus landed an internship at a music label in Spain. After taking some detours, he eventually ended up in gaming and was part of the team that created the original Grand Theft Auto in 1997.
Hartmann worked for the game publisher Take-Two (GTA, Max Payne) for over 20 years starting in 1995 and founded the gaming label “2K Games” (Bioshock, Borderlands, Civilization) in 2005. In 2017, he left the studio without specifying reasons.
Since 2018, he has been the key figure at Amazon Games as “Vice President” and is now planning a major assault on MMORPGs.
In an interview with IGN, he explains his intentions for the new LOTR MMORPG, which Amazon officially announced on May 15. The team from New World is supposed to develop the mammoth project.
The Lord of the Rings should attract new players to MMORPGs
Here’s what he says about The Lord of the Rings:
I want it to be the biggest MMO out there. That is of course good for us, but it is also good for gamers because I think there is a market for people who want big MMOs. There aren’t many out there, and I want it to be a title that brings many people into the genre because ultimately: The more people play, the more people there are to play with. And that is my dream and my hope: It should be the biggest MMO there is out there.
“Since I’ve been here, it has gotten better”
What does he say about the problems at Amazon Games? Amazon had a difficult start in gaming: With Breakaway and Crucible, first projects quickly died.
According to Hartmann, video game publishers are like a roller coaster. And right now, they are “more on the way up than down”:
Amazon has tried to establish itself in games, and I think they have approached the issue more like a tech company, not like a gaming or entertainment company.
When they brought me in for the first time, with a lot of experience and knowledge of the gaming industry, and when they gave us the space to breathe that we needed, it got better.
“New World was a big, big success”
What about the difficulties with New World? New World started off fantastically on Steam in 2021, with almost 1 million players online, but players quickly disappeared due to lack of new content and issues in gameplay.
Nonetheless, Hartmann considers the MMORPG a great achievement.
He says that for a new team with a first product and its own tech to create something this huge is great. That simply doesn’t happen otherwise.
The team of New World was then surprised by the rush at launch:
You can’t only prepare for the launch; you have to prepare for the first 2 years after the launch.
In retrospect, that was the big lesson from New World. Looking back, he says: If only more content and fewer problems had been created, they might have retained more players. But people would still like New World. They have now released a battle pass, and the numbers are rising again.
Amazon sees great potential in live service games and PS5/Xbox Series X
For the future, he has set himself the goal that Amazon Games also develops for consoles. The fact that the first games came only for PC were apparently still decisions made before his time.
He sees “live service” games, including MMOs, as a market with great potential that continues to grow. Players who quit due to age will be replaced by younger ones. Thus, the market can continue to grow.
Hartmann says that to reach millions of players, you have to take big risks and also appeal to players who have never played an MMO before. He is willing to take these risks:
My goal is not to make a certain group of MMO players happy with the game. I want people who usually don’t play MMORPGs to say: Hey, maybe I’ll play this because I understand it. It’s Lord of the Rings […] – I want us to approach it with such a broad perspective that we are not just making another MMO.
More about the new LOTR MMO:
