The video game division of Amazon.com Inc. canceled an online role-playing game based on the fantasy series Lord of the Rings, which was announced in 2019, in another hurdle for the tech giant.
The game was being developed at Amazon Game Studios with Chinese company Leyou Technologies Holdings Ltd., which was acquired by the conglomerate Tencent Holdings Ltd. in December. The resulting contract negotiations led to a dispute between Amazon and Tencent that eventually led to the cancellation of the game, said people familiar with the issue, who asked not to be identified because they were not allowed to speak publicly about the issue.
An Amazon spokesperson confirmed that after Tencent’s acquisition of Leyou, “we have not been able to provide conditions to continue 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 we are disappointed that we will not bring this game to our customers,” the Seattle company spokesman said in a statement.
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The cancellation follows a series of bad news for Amazon Game Studios, which has failed to launch a successful video game since its launch in 2014. The company has canceled the previously announced games Breakaway and Crucible. Another of his games, The New World, has been repeatedly delayed.
Amazon owns the popular streaming service, Twitch, but its video game division has been in trouble for years due to mismanagement and cultural clashes between game developers and company principles, Bloomberg reported earlier this year.