For the last few years, we’ve been covering a new Lord of the Rings MMO that was a collaboration between Tencent’s Leyou Technologies and Amazon Game Studios. Back in November, leaked documents showed that the game was meant to be in playable prototype form by this coming June, with a closed beta in the fall and an open beta potentially in 2023. The game was originally set for both PC and console, and we assumed it would tie in with Amazon’s Lord of the Rings-flavored TV show.
Unfortunately, it looks as if none of this is going to happen, as Bloomberg is reporting that Amazon has canceled the game entirely. “We love the Lord of the Rings IP, and are disappointed that we won’t be bringing this game to customers,” Amazon admitted to Bloomberg. “We have been unable to secure terms to proceed with this title at this time” – a bit of an odd comment since we thought the licensing was secured years ago. At least there won’t be Amazon layoffs and the existing team members will be shuffled to other game projects, though it’s not clear what will happen to the Leyou/Athlon team working on its part of the title.
MMO readers will recall that Amazon, which has come under considerable fire after a report about the company’s internal culture, has been on quite a tear canceling games over the last while, including Breakaway and most recently Crucible. The studio hasn’t managed to actually launch anything successfully yet, though New World is slated to launch this summer after multiple delays. The company also just opened a new studio in Canada.
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