Amazon's 'Lord Of The Rings' MMO Canceled Over Tencent Dispute

Two years after its official announcement, Amazon’s upcoming “Lord Of The Rings” MMO has been officially canceled due to a contractual dispute with one of its China-based partners.

Amazon Game Studios had been developing the “LOTR” MMO together with Leyou Technologies Ltd., a China-based company that has been acquired by the business conglomerate Tencent Holdings Ltd., Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier has learned.

The contract between Leyou and Tencent eventually resulted in the cancellation of Amazon’s MMO project. An Amazon spokesperson said that they were “unable to secure terms to proceed with this title at this time.” Schreier noted that the team working on the canceled “LOTR” project will now be moved to Amazon’s other game projects.

Not much information about Amazon’s “Lord Of The Rings” game was revealed other than it’s an MMO. Fans were hoping for a more refined and modernized version of the existing “The Lord Of The Rings Online” game that’s currently available on Steam for free.

This isn’t the first time that Amazon’s game development division failed to produce a game. The U.S.-based tech giant had previously canceled two of its announced games in the past. Its multiplayer third-person shooter game “Crucible” is infamous for being “de-released” from a full launch title back into a closed beta game before getting canceled completely.

“New World,” Amazon’s other MMO, has been delayed several times but is currently enjoying steady development progress after a few successful beta runs. The game recently received a new party-based PvE experience called Expeditions, which are essentially traditional MMO dungeons with a few twists.

It is unknown if the “LOTR” team will join the “New World” developers, but it’s very likely to happen given their experience with MMO development. It’s worth noting that the “Lord Of The Rings” project was canceled only due to a conflict with contractual agreements and not due to mismanagement or troubles with the development process.

“New World” is currently the only game being developed by Amazon Game Studios now that the “LOTR” MMO is out of the question. Gamers who are eager to dive into Amazon’s upcoming MMO will be able to play the game once it releases on August 31, 2021, assuming that it does not get delayed again.