Amazon’s proposed major MMO game based on “The Lord of the Rings” franchise has seemingly been cancelled.
The game was announced in 2023 as part of a partnership with Middle-Earth rights-owner Embracer Group and was dubbed a “persistent open-world MMO adventure” spanning the events of “The Hobbit” and “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy.
RPS (via VGC) reports that the news was revealed in a LinkedIn post of an Amazon Games worker who lost their job this week – one of at least 14,000 caught up in the significant layoffs across the larger online retailer. In the posting, the ex-employee said:
“This morning I was part of the layoffs at Amazon Games, alongside my incredibly talented peers on New World and our fledgling Lord of the Rings game (y’all would have loved it). It’s always tough to see such a strong team go through something like this – I’ve been lucky to work with some of the most skilled, creative, and kind developers I’ve ever met here.”
The cancellation isn’t a huge surprise as Amazon Games has indicated it is stepping away from MMO development and ending development of its existing online game “New World”. Amazon Games Orange County, where
Amazon Studios also produces “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” series for Prime Video – that series is unrelated to the proposed MMO game.
