\n
\n
\n <\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
\n
![\"New](\"https:\/\/www.engadget.com\/img\/gallery\/amazon-has-hurled-its-lord-of-the-rings-mmo-back-into-the-fires-of-mount-doom\/intro-1778791894.jpg\")
\n <\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n Amazon Games<\/span>\n <\/div>\n
The Lord of the Rings MMO in development at Amazon has been cancelled, but there’s still a Tolkien-based something on the way,\u00a0Eurogamer<\/em> reports.\u00a0The fate of the Lord of the Rings MMO has been uncertain since October 2025, when Amazon laid off a significant portion of its Games division, shuttered its four-year-old MMO, New World: Aeternum<\/em>, and cut way back on major game investments.<\/p>\n Amazon passively confirmed the cancellation of the\u00a0Lord of the Rings MMO to Eurogamer<\/em>, which asked\u00a0for a comment after hearing from studio insiders this year that it was officially shelved. Amazon’s gaming lead Jeff Grattis said, “Our creative team continues to explore a compelling new game experience that does justice to Tolkien’s world; we are working closely with Middle-earth and remain excited about the IP.” That’s as close to a “yeah, that big ol’ MMO is dead” as it comes, in marketing speak.<\/p>\n The New World<\/em> team, Amazon Games Orange County, started publicly working on the Lord of the Rings MMO in 2023. When the layoffs rolled through two years later, Amazon said in a staff memo that it was withdrawing support for big-budget titles and especially MMOs, but the company didn’t name names. Around that time, a former senior gameplay engineer apparently\u00a0posted and then deleted a LinkedIn message alluding to the death of the Lord of the Rings MMO (while breaking our hearts even more): “This morning I was part of the layoffs at Amazon Games alongside my incredibly talented peers on New World<\/em> and our fledgling Lord of the Rings game (y’all would have loved it).”<\/p>\n Claims of the cancellation\u00a0emerged this week as part of a larger Eurogamer<\/em> investigation into Amazon’s generative-AI mandates and subsequent layoffs.<\/p>\n Amazon still has rights to make video games based on\u00a0The Lord of the Rings<\/em> and The Hobbit<\/em> under its 2023 deal with Embracer Group, and it’s also producing the\u00a0Rings of Power<\/em> television show based on JRR Tolkien’s works. Amazon recently announced it was shutting down Glowmade’s dungeon crawler\u00a0King of Meat<\/em>\u00a0just six months after launch, and it’s currently focused on\u00a0simplifying Luna, its game-streaming service, in an overt bid to make Prime subscriptions more attractive.\u00a0<\/p>\n Let’s hope the equation of (has LotR license) + (needs Luna content) + (is OK with AI in creative settings)<\/em> doesn’t lead to something dreadful here.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
\n
\n<\/article>\n<\/p><\/div>\n