This week, Amazon Games announced that it is taking a second crack at making a new MMO based on the Lord of the Rings IP. Some in The Lord of the Rings Online community have wondered what this might mean for that game’s future. This hasn't gone unnoticed by any of the parties involved.
The new deal between Amazon and Embracer Group-owned Middle-earth Enterprises was announced back on Monday, with work on the project being undertaken at Amazon Games Orange County, the studio responsible for New World. Now, little is known about what direction Amazon's new Lord of the Rings MMO will take, but Standing Stone Games has reassured its community that The Lord of the Rings Online (which just marked its 16th anniversary) is not going anywhere.
In an official post entitled “A note from Middle-earth Enterprises and Standing Stone Games to the LOTRO Community”, did serve as that dose of reassurance.
“During the past few days, we’ve received a number of notes from excited and concerned community members about a new MMO coming to the Tolkien-verse from Amazon Games.
Some folks have asked what this means for LOTRO. We wanted to give everyone in the community an update and assure you all that LOTRO is not going away!
Like you, we, and our partners at Middle-earth Enterprises are huge fans of LOTRO. It is beloved, it is sixteen, it is evergreen. LOTRO is like the long-lived Ents, Elves and Dwarves; and we mere mortals, are the stewards of LOTRO and its community. Standing Stone has every intention of growing and supporting this community. The road goes ever on…”
Previously, Amazon had a deal with Leyou, which was bought by Tencent and was working on a Lord of the Rings MMORPG before canceling the project in 2021. That project was canceled for reasons that included rights issues and possible tension with Tencent.
When the new Amazon Games-Middle-earth Enterprises partnership and new MMORPG was announced this week, Amazon Games VP Christoph Hartmann told GamesIndustry.biz, on LOTRO, “First of all, I have a lot of respect for them to keep it going that long. They have a, not huge, but a very dedicated fanbase. But looking just at the technology, where we're at now, and where we will be in a couple of years, it's just worlds apart. It's a little exaggeration if I say it's going to be like black and white movies to colour, but that's the approach I want to take. It's just a completely different world”.
The Amazon MMO is currently in pre-production.
