Amazon has canceled its Lord of the Rings MMORPG that was first announced in 2019.As reported by Bloomberg, the game was in development at Amazon Games Studios alongside China-based Leyou Technologies Holdings Ltd, which was purchased by Tencent Holdings Ltd. in December 2020.The contract negotiations between Amazon and Tencent were said to have caused a dispute that eventually led to the game’s cancellation.
An Amazon spokesperson confirmed that, following Tencent’s acquisition of Leyou, it had “been unable to secure terms to proceed with this title at this time.”
The team will be shifted to other projects, and Amazon shared its disappointment in not being able to bring this project to the world.
“We love the Lord of the Rings IP, and are disappointed that we won’t be bringing this game to customers,” a spokesperson for Amazon said.
This joins Breakaway and Crucible as yet another cancelled project for Amazon Game Studios, which itself was the subject of another Bloomberg report that detailed the dysfunction and struggles the studio has been dealing with.
Amazon still has one MMORPG in the works called New World, although that project has been hit with delays and is now scheduled for release in August 2021.
For fans disappointed by the news of this cancellation, Turbine’s The Lord of the Rings Online is still active, and we still have Amazon Prime’s The Lord of the Rings Series and The Lord of the Rings: Gollum video game to look forward to.
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Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.
Source: https://www.ign.com/articles/amazon-cancels-its-the-lord-of-the-rings-mmorpg