​

Nearly three years after Amazon announced that it would be co-developing a free-to-play massively multiplayer online game based off of the Lord of the Rings franchise, it appears that this iteration of Middle-earth won't be seeing the light of day. In an article from Bloomberg's Jason Schreier, an Amazon spokesperson has confirmed that the game will not be continuing development, as the result of the purchase of co-developer Leyou Technology Holdings Ltd., by Chinese technology conglomerate Tencent Holdings Ltd. in December of last year.

An Amazon spokesperson confirmed that after Tencent’s acquisition of Leyou, “we have been unable to secure terms to proceed with this title at this time.”

The Amazon team working on the game will be moved to other projects. “We love the Lord of the Rings IP, and are disappointed that we won’t be bringing this game to customers,” the spokesperson for the Seattle-based company said in a statement.

Amazon's Lord of the Rings MMO was announced in July of 2019, and was intended to be a free-to-play MMO available for both PC and consoles. No intended release date was ever announced for the game.

Source: Bloomberg

 

[anhminh]

Problem with Tolkien-base game is they can't find people who passionate enough about the book to be producer for the game. Every game is ranged from meh to terrible both plot and gameplay wise.

 

[the_randomizer]

Amazon took Homer's advice:

"You both tried your best and you failed miserably. The lesson is, never try"

 

[guisadop]

nothing was lost, though I hope the devs wont be laid off.
they would be better off making a single player game.

 

[vincentx77]

With that much money you'd think they could just buy a competent studio to make their in-house games. There must be someone over there who micromanages everything and is totally shit at it.

 

[Xzi]

nothing was lost, though I hope the devs wont be laid off.
they would be better off making a single player game.

Nah bro they'll be employed with Tencent making some shitty shit.

Now what would be hilarious is if they took what they've developed so far and put some new textures on it and names in it, then released it anyway under a different IP.

 

[Soulsilve2010]

"Tencent"

Yeah now no one should touch it with a 10 foot pole

 

[BitMasterPlus]

Between Amazon and Tencent, I'm glad this got canned. We'll get something like this made by a better company one day I hope.

 

[subcon959]

I hate it when Bloomberg is used as a source for articles.. or any site that needs a subscription to actually do any further reading. I noticed it's the same author who made some bold claims in the past without providing any sources.

 

[K3Nv2]

Amazon can't make a game to save its life

Their market is more based on spying into your private life then developing something you can enjoy.

 

[BORTZ]

No one wanted that anyways. Give me the PS2 games remastered.

 

[pcwizard7]

I wouldn't trust a MMO that's partner with tencent anyways. It would just be a big gotcha game.

 

[UltraDolphinRevolution]

Problem with Tolkien-base game is they can't find people who passionate enough about the book to be producer for the game. Every game is ranged from meh to terrible both plot and gameplay wise.

I do not care much about the plot (though I have seen some of the movies). However, the gameplay is alright in the games I have played: an RTS for PC and action adventure for Wii (with up to two players; by the Battalion Wars developers).

 

[Bladexdsl]

good amazon would have found a way to ruin it.

 

[Vila_]

So is Amazon just gonna give up trying to make games already? This is what, three failures in a row?

I didn't even know amazon was attempting to make games...

what where the other two failures?

 

[Xzi]

I didn't even know amazon was attempting to make games...

what where the other two failures?

A MOBA that had to go back into development after really poor reception at release and then was eventually cancelled. And another MMO called "New World" which had a beta that was poorly received.

 

[FAST6191]

I didn't even know amazon was attempting to make games...

what where the other two failures?

The had a whole game console

https://uk.pcmag.com/migrated-84555-gaming/13676/rumor-amazon-building-an-android-game-console
https://www.cnet.com/news/amazon-fire-tv-as-game-console-the-good-bad-and-weird/
and has dabbled in game streaming
https://www.independent.co.uk/life-...oles-xbox-playstation-pc-gaming-a8722641.html

and has an in house developer as of not so very long ago
https://www.amazongames.com/en-us

as far as

With that much money you'd think they could just buy a competent studio to make their in-house games. There must be someone over there who micromanages everything and is totally shit at it.

Micromanaging seems to be a problem with all large companies. Quite amusing given Amazon's custom server thing that thrust them somewhat to the forefront of this whole online distribution lark (today everybody writes in PHP but back when Amazon took faster options to allow them to be faster, react faster and otherwise do good stuff).



As for the matter at hand. Meh. I liked the lord of the rings dungeon crawler games on PS2, and some seemed to like the Final Fantasy 10 clone. The GBA games variously have their charms (they are quite different too). None are ever likely to have set the world on fire though, and this was likely to be even less than that.

 

[vincentx77]

A MOBA that had to go back into development after really poor reception at release and then was eventually cancelled. And another MMO called "New World" which had a beta that was poorly received.

I was part of that stupid beta. It seemed pretty open, but they were so paranoid that people were going to leak footage of it that they put a watermark over the whole gameplay experience so they'd know who broke the NDA. It had pretty good graphics for an MMO. That's about the only positive I can say. It was duller than dishwater.

 

[sonyabyrd]

I never knew there was a LOTR game made by Amazon. I hope that the TV show they're making doesn't get canceled. It would be a shame because I am looking forward to seeing something new. The Hobbit movie was a long time ago now, and I need something new! I am not sure at what time is the new TV show set, but it would be fun to see what kind of king was Éomer. He was a really interesting character in both movies and books, and he helped Aragorn and the fellowship beat Sauron. I hope the TV show meets my expectations, it would be a shame to be disappointed by something I waited for that long.

 

[Sarugetchu]

I didn't know this was a thing.

 

[BeiBourne]

probably swerved a disaster there anyways. will never forgive them for botching the wheel of time so badly