Amazon has canceled its Lord of the Rings MMO.
Bloomberg reports the game, announced in 2019, has been scrapped over a dispute between Amazon and Chinese megacorp Tencent.
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In July 2019, Amazon’s game development arm, Amazon Game Studios, revealed that they had released a new MMO based on JRR Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy.
Amazon was working on LA-based developer Athlon Games – a subsidiary of Chinese publisher Leyou Technologies, owner of Warframe developer Digital Extremes and Splash Damage. In December, Tencent bought Leyou, which forged contract negotiations over the Lord of the Rings MMO. According to Bloomberg, these negotiations led to a dispute that eventually led to the cancellation of the game.
An Amazon spokesman told Bloomberg that after Tencent’s acquisition of Leyou ‘we were unable to obtain conditions to continue with this title. ‘
“We love the Lord of the Rings IP, and are disappointed that we will not bring this game to customers.”
The Amazon team working on the game will be moved to other projects, Bloomberg said.
Amazon’s Lord of the Rings MMO is expected to be released sometime in 2022, and would be announced as part of Tencent’s acquisition of Leyou by Amazon outside China, according to Amazon.
The new game would take place before the events of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, and was previously described as an ‘AAA experience’ with ‘lands, people and creatures never seen before’.
According to Leyou Technologies, the project is green, ‘in light of the resurgence of interest in The Lord of the Rings IP’, which many believe is a reference to Amazon’s upcoming $ 1 billion Lord of the Rings television series.
The cancellation is the latest setback for Amazon Game Studios, which has yet to release a game. In October, Amazon Crucible canceled – five months after its release and four months after its release.
In February, Amazon’s ambitious MMO New World got its third delay and is now expected in August.
Bloomberg has a good report on why Amazon has struggled so far to make a successful video game, despite spending millions of dollars on it.
Tencent is the world’s largest video game company in terms of revenue, with a significant stake in a number of Western video game publishers, such as the maker of League of Legends Riot, Clash of Clans studio Supercell and Fortnite developer Epic Games. .
It has been the subject of controversy over the years, with its influence. In October 2019, Blizzard came under fire for banning and revoking the prize money of Hong Kong Hearthstone tournament winner Ng Wai Chung, or Blitzchung, who used his post-match victory interview to make a statement of support for Hong Kong protesters. to reach. Despite a public setback, Blizzard eventually partially withdrew the sentence. Tencent has a five percent stake in Activision Blizzard.