Amazon has canceled its Lord of the Rings MMO.
Bloomberg reports that the game, which was announced in 2019, was abandoned due to a dispute between Amazon and the Chinese mega-body Tencent.
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In July 2019, Amazon’s game development arm, Amazon Game Studios, revealed that it is co-developing a new free-to-play MMO based on the JRR Tolkien trilogy The Lord of the Rings.
Amazon worked with LA-based developer Athlon Games – a subsidiary of Chinese publisher Leyou Technologies, owner of Warframe Digital Extremes and Splash Damage. In December, Tencent bought Leyou, who forged contractual negotiations on the Lord of the Rings MMO. Bloomberg said the 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 secure conditions to continue with this title at this time.”
“We love the Lord of the Rings IP and we 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.
The Amazon Lord of the Rings MMO was due to appear sometime in 2022 and was to be released by Amazon outside of China, according to disclosure documents filed as part of Tencent’s acquisition of Leyou.
The new game was set 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.”
The project was lit in green, according to Leyou Technologies, “in light of the resurgence of interest in IP Lord of the Rings,” which many saw as a reference to Amazon’s upcoming $ 1 billion Lord of the Rings television series.
Cancellation is the latest failure for Amazon Game Studios, which has not yet released a game. In October, Amazon canceled Crucible – five months after launch and four months after launch.
In February, the ambitious New World MMO from Amazon received the third delay and is now expected in August.
Bloomberg has a good report on why Amazon has so far struggled to make a successful video game, despite throwing millions of dollars at it.
Tencent is the world’s largest video game company in terms of revenue, with significant stakes in a number of Western video game publishers, such as producer of League of Legends Riot, Clash of Clans Supercell studio and developer Fortnite Epic Games. .
It has been the subject of controversy over the years, with its influence questioned. In October 2019, Blizzard came under fire for banning and revoking the cash prize of Hong Kong Hearthstone tournament winner Ng Wai Chung aka Blitzchung, who used his post-match victory interview to issue a statement of support for the protesters. from Hong Kong. In the face of a public reaction, Blizzard partially overturned the sentence. Tencent has a five percent stake in Activision Blizzard.