Amazon’s The Lord of the Rings MMO seems to have been canceled as half of sweeping layoffs that hit the firm’s gaming enterprise arduous.
This week, Amazon confirmed it was strolling away from making new content material for its MMO, New World, amid big layoffs affecting 14,000 roles at the firm. Based on a report by Bloomberg, these layoffs included “important” cuts to Amazon’s online game operation, which can scale back growth work and layoff workers primarily in its Irvine and San Diego places of work. Bloomberg stated Amazon was chopping again particularly on MMOs.
That sparked concern for The Lord of the Rings MMO. Now, one former Amazon Video games developer hit by the cuts has indicated the sport has certainly fallen by the wayside.
“This morning I used to be half of the layoffs at Amazon Video games, alongside my extremely proficient friends on New World and our fledgling Lord of the Rings sport (y’all would have beloved it),” the developer stated in a now-deleted put up on LinkedIn.
“It’s at all times robust to see such a powerful staff undergo one thing like this — I’ve been fortunate to work with some of the most expert, artistic, and type builders I’ve ever met right here.”
The line “y’all would have beloved it,” does recommend The Lord of the Rings is now useless. Neither Amazon nor Lord of the rings rights holder Embracer have responded to IGN’s request for remark.
Though The Lord of the Rings was introduced in 2023, in August final 12 months, Amazon Video games boss Christoph Hartmann instructed IGN it was nonetheless early days. “We’re nonetheless looking for the hook, discover that concept of what it’s as a result of we do not simply wish to go and do the similar factor over,” Hartmann stated at the time.
“Whereas it is tempting typically with an present IP, that is not the level of doing it. You have to discover a recent twist, and we’re nonetheless, I believe, in that interval the place we actually wish to discover out what might be the hook, what might be the factor which is totally different to all the different video games on the market. So it is a bit of bit early.”
In 2023, Embracer stated it wanted to be “exploiting Lord of the Rings in a really important vogue” by turning it into “one of the largest gaming franchises in the world.” Embracer purchased the rights to The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit in August 2022 and introduced plans to discover alternatives to create new video games, motion pictures, and extra primarily based on the well-known mental property quickly after.
This isn’t 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 introduced in 2019 amid a contract dispute with Tencent.
Wesley is Director, Information at IGN. Discover him on Twitter at @wyp100. You possibly can attain Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.