{"id":52360,"date":"2026-05-14T20:35:35","date_gmt":"2026-05-14T12:35:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=52360"},"modified":"2026-05-14T20:35:35","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T12:35:35","slug":"amazons-the-lord-of-the-rings-mmo-finally-confirmed-as-canceled-although-work-on-a-new-middle-earth-video-game-continues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=52360","title":{"rendered":"Amazon&#8217;s The Lord of the Rings MMO Finally Confirmed as Canceled, Although Work on a New Middle-Earth Video Game Continues"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">We can safely say that Amazon\u2019s The Lord of the Rings MMO is dead, although the mega corp has insisted it\u2019s still working on a new Middle-earth video game.<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">Confirmation comes from Eurogamer, which reported on the cancelation of the game as part of an investigation into Amazon\u2019s push towards generative AI and subsequent widespread layoffs across its development teams.<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">Amazon Games boss Jeff Grattis, told Eurogamer: \u201cOur creative team continues to explore a compelling new game experience that does justice to Tolkien&#8217;s world; we are working closely with Middle-earth and remain excited about the IP.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><output class=\"box-wrapper jsx-2673806401\" data-cy=\"article-slideshow\"><button type=\"button\" style=\"display:none\" class=\"jsx-2228525885\"\/><span data-cy=\"slideshow-view-trigger\"><\/p>\n<div data-cy=\"slideshow-preview\" class=\"jsx-1711207865 slideshow-preview\">\n<h3 class=\"title5 jsx-62124236 jsx-1085005187\" data-cy=\"slideshow-preview-title\">The Best Lord of the Rings Video Games<\/h3>\n<div data-cy=\"slideshow-images-container\" class=\"jsx-1711207865 images-container\"><button type=\"button\" data-cy=\"hero-image\" aria-label=\"Open Slideshow\" class=\"jsx-1711207865 hero-image\"><img alt=\"Tolkien\u2019s Middle-earth has captured the imagination of fantasy fans worldwide ever since The Hobbit was published in 1937. And although Peter Jackson is the film director who successfully brought the books to life on the big screen, you might be surprised to learn Middle-earth also has a rich video game history that goes back decades.&lt;br&gt;&lt;\/br&gt;\u00a0&#10;The earliest video game adaptation was created in 1982 by Beam Software, which developed a text-adventure game based on The Hobbit. The game was a huge hit and went on to sell over 500,000 units in Europe, despite middling reviews from critics. Such is the power of Tolkien\u2019s works.&lt;br&gt;&lt;\/br&gt;\u00a0&#10;In total, there are over 50 video games based on the works of J.R.R. Tolkien that span numerous genres, like action-adventure, RPG, strategy, and more. As we prepare for another new Tolkien game just on the horizon, we\u2019ve gone through this long history and chosen the 11 best Lord of the Rings games ever made.&#10;\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"progressive-image jsx-2021719738 image aspect-ratio aspect-ratio-16-9 jsx-2605834259 jsx-2338608387 hover-opacity\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7\" data-cy=\"progressive-image\"\/><span class=\"button-text jsx-729543028 button button--primary jsx-3381835873 jsx-4266531355 row-pagination-button next contained centered round large\" data-cy=\"paginate next\" title=\"Open Slideshow\"><span class=\"ign-icon right-chevron jsx-2750866048 jsx-2919720488\" role=\"presentation\" aria-hidden=\"true\" data-cy=\"right-chevron\" style=\"mask:url(https:\/\/kraken.ignimgs.com\/_next\/static\/media\/RightChevron.272be43c.svg?cors=1) no-repeat center center \/ contain;background:currentColor\"\/><\/span><\/button><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/output><\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">The Lord of the Rings MMO was thought dead back in October, when Amazon confirmed it was walking away from making new content for its MMO, New World, amid huge layoffs affecting 14,000 roles at the company. According to a report by Bloomberg, these layoffs included \u201csignificant\u201d cuts to Amazon\u2019s video game operation, which reduced development work mainly in its Irvine and San Diego offices.<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">Bloomberg said Amazon was cutting back especially on MMOs, sparking concern for The Lord of the Rings MMO. At the time, a former Amazon Games developer hit by the cuts suggested The Lord of the Rings MMO was dead.<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">\u201cThis morning I was part of the layoffs at Amazon Games, alongside my incredibly talented peers on New World and our fledgling Lord of the Rings game (y&#8217;all would have loved it),\u201d the developer said in a now-deleted post on LinkedIn.<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">\u201cIt\u2019s always tough to see such a strong team go through something like this \u2014 I\u2019ve been lucky to work with some of the most skilled, creative, and kind developers I\u2019ve ever met here.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><output class=\"box-wrapper jsx-2673806401\" data-cy=\"article-video\"\/><\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">Although The Lord of the Rings MMO was announced in 2023, in August last year, then Amazon Games boss Christoph Hartmann told IGN it was still early days. &#8220;We&#8217;re still trying to find the hook, find that idea of what it is because we don&#8217;t just want to go and do the same thing over,&#8221; Hartmann said at the time.<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">&#8220;While it&#8217;s tempting sometimes with an existing IP, that&#8217;s not the point of doing it. You&#8217;ve got to find a fresh twist, and we&#8217;re still, I think, in that period where we really want to find out what could be the hook, what could be the thing which is different to all the other games out there. So it&#8217;s a little bit early.\u201d<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">In 2023, Lord of the Rings rights owner Embracer said it needed to be &#8220;exploiting Lord of the Rings in a very significant fashion&#8221; by turning it into \u201cone of the biggest gaming franchises in the world.\u201d Embracer bought the rights to The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit in August 2022 and announced plans to explore opportunities to create new games, movies, and more based on the famous intellectual property soon after.<\/p>\n<p><span data-cy=\"poll-view-trigger\"><\/p>\n<section class=\"box-wrapper jsx-2673806401\"\/><\/span><\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">It\u2019s worth digging into Amazon\u2019s statement a little deeper here. Mention of \u201ca compelling new game experience that does justice to Tolkien&#8217;s world\u201d suggests a new The Lord of the Rings game is in the works. But what could it be? Perhaps it\u2019s the rumored The Lord of the Rings RPG from Kingdom Come: Deliverance developer Warhorse, which, it\u2019s worth pointing out, is owned by Embracer.<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">This isn\u2019t the first time Amazon has canceled a Lord of the Rings MMO. In 2021, it halted a Lord of the Rings MMORPG that was first announced in 2019 amid a contract dispute with Tencent.<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\"><em>Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ign.com\/articles\/amazon-confirms-its-working-on-a-compelling-new-the-lord-of-the-rings-video-game-but-its-mmo-is-dead\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article At Source <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We can safely say that Amazon\u2019s The Lord of the Rings MMO is dead, although the mega corp has insisted it\u2019s still working on a&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":52361,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[1302,3716,3093,1219,3698,258,2033,11927,3915,2034,1256,1451],"class_list":["post-52360","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tech-gadgets-reviews","tag-amazons","tag-canceled","tag-confirmed","tag-continues","tag-finally","tag-game","tag-lord","tag-middleearth","tag-mmo","tag-rings","tag-video","tag-work","wpcat-32-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52360","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=52360"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52360\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/52361"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=52360"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=52360"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=52360"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}