An Open World journey through Middle Earth
Amazon Gameshas announceda brand new open-worldLord of the RingsMMO set in the persistent world of Middle-earth. The game will finally move forward after an agreement between Amazon Games and Embracer Group(formerly THQ Nordic AB). It will be published globally by Amazon Games as well and will be available on both PC and consoles.
Late last year a previous Lord of the Rings MMO project at Amazon Games wascanceled after a dispute with former development partner Tencent. Many assumed the project was no more, but it appears that is no longer the case.
Leading development will be Amazon Games Orange County, the makers of the existing open-world MMONew World. The game will also add to a growing arsenal of MMO titles that Amazon Games will publish. Earlier this year they signed publishing agreements with both NCSOFT and Bandai Namco to publishThrone and LibertyandBlue Protocolrespectively. When you include Smilegate’sLost Ark,that brings the total count of MMOs published by them to five which is quite impressive.
Potential for two activeLord of the RingsMMO’s at once
It’s not yet known what the fate of the existing MMORPGThe Lord of the Rings Onlinewill be. The game was released in 2007 by Turbine who later sold the game to Standing Stone Games. Despite its age, the game still receives updates and even had a brand new expansionrelease in November 2022. There is already a roadmap through the rest of 2023 for the game including a new expansion later this year. With each game having its own separate license, it’s possible we will have two active LOTR MMOs at once.
Amazon Games hasalready indicatedthat the upcoming MMO is unrelated to Amazon Studios’The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of PowerTV show on Prime Video.
