Amazon Games has announced that it has reached an agreement with Embracer Group to develop and publish a new massively multiplayer online (MMO) game based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s high-fantasy series, The Lord of the Rings. According to a press release that Amazon shared today, the new game will feature the stories of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings literary trilogy, and while it doesn’t have a title yet and is still in the early stages of production, the MMO will be available to play on both PC and consoles. Christoph Hartmann, Amazon Games’ CEO, told IGN in a new interview about how the game is aiming to be the biggest MMO out there.
“This is a completely new game because the license is much, much wider… Obviously, there’s nothing changing because we all know the world is set, the characters are set. It’s really the freedom we have in terms of gameplay features where now anything is possible and the limitation is where it’s technically possible or not,” Hartmann told IGN. “Before, it was like, ‘It’s a good idea but we can’t do it because there’s something else going on.’ Now, the mission we are on, and the mission Embracer fully supports, Middle-earth Enterprises, fully supports, is to make the biggest best MMO out there based on Lord of the Rings. That’s our ambition.”
“I want it to be the biggest MMO out there. That’s obviously good for us, but I think that’s also good for gamers because I think there’s still a market for people craving big MMOs,” Hartmann added. “There haven’t been that many out there, and I think I wanted it to be the title that brings even more people into that genre, because the more people that play, the more people are to play with, and that’s really my dream and hope… to be the biggest MMO title out there.”
“We’re committed to bringing players high-quality games, whether through original IPs or long-beloved ones like The Lord of the Rings,” said Christoph Hartmann, VP, Amazon Games. “Bringing players a fresh take on The Lord of the Rings has long been an aspiration for our team, and we’re honored and grateful that Middle-earth Enterprises is entrusting us with this iconic world. We’re also pleased to be expanding our relationship with Embracer Group following our Tomb Raider deal last year, as they’ve proven to be excellent collaborators.”
“The world of Middle-earth continues to prove an endlessly fertile ground for creators, and Amazon Games has a passion for building immersive, compelling worlds and publishing games for a global audience,” said Lee Guinchard, CEO of Freemode. “We have the clear ambition to create the highest-quality entertainment products for this IP, whether we utilize internal resources or team up with the best industry partners that complement our capabilities. We’re taking every care to deliver an MMO which will do justice to the expansive Middle-earth universe and delight players around the world.”
From an Amazon press release:
The upcoming game will be an open-world MMO adventure in a persistent world set in Middle-earth, featuring the beloved stories of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings literary trilogy. The game is in early stages of production, with the Amazon Games Orange County studio—makers of the popular open-world MMO game New World—leading development. Amazon Games will publish the game globally for PC and consoles. Additional details, including launch timing, will be shared at a later date.
The as-yet-untitled The Lord of the Rings game continues Amazon Games’ growing momentum in game publishing and development, following the success of its internally developed MMO New World and action RPG Lost Ark from Smilegate RPG, both of which have topped Steam and Twitch charts and continue to nurture strong player communities. Amazon has also announced publishing agreements with NCSOFT for Throne and Liberty, Bandai Namco Online for Blue Protocol, Crystal Dynamics for the next major Tomb Raider game, and Glowmade and Disruptive Games for unannounced titles.
Discussion (9 replies)
Join Discussion →Amazon only 10 years late to the party. MMOs are so 2010s, and I still hate em.
BTW didn't they already cancel one lotr mmo?
I thought the LOTR MMO was still going.. ohhh gooogle... Yea it's literally The Lord Of The Rings Online. WTF?
I think they're just doing whatever they can to justify however much they spent to hold onto the rights from it all. Yeah, too little, too late and there already is one. I'm not into MMOs either so I've never tried them. The only games I've ever played or watched was The Hobbit on a friend's ZX Spectrum back in the day and then I did enjoy the Two Towers and Return of The King games back around the PS2 era. I'm pretty sure I still have the PC version of RoTK sitting around somewhere. I really enjoyed that one. I also enjoyed the 1st Mordor game but never finished it or played the others. I just got too burned out on it, just like I have with Star Wars games.
The biggest thing that Lord Of The Rings online bought about was in game playable instruments. As far as I can tell they were the first well known MMMORPG to bring that.... and even then I should use quotes around "well known".
LOTRO (as it's known colloquially to those that play MMOs) is well respected. It's a bit long in the tooth by today's standards, but it still gets updates and still has a loyal player base. It started off published by Turbine Games / Warner Bros (Asheron's Call, D&D Online), went F2P in 2010, but Turbine started to run into trouble in 2014/2015 and in 2016 was bought by the same holding company that now owns Everquest and the rest of Sony Online Entertainment - Daybreak Games.
It was never the juggernaut that, say, World of Warcraft was. But how many other games really are? It's long held as one of the better story-based MMO's available out there, especially if you are a Tolkien fan as it holds fairly well to established lore.
Yeah, I have, not one but, two lifetime subscriptions that I haven't visited in many a long while. I've pretty much given up on MMOs. I used to play with an online friend fairly regularly up through the Gondor content update, but we both seem to have found other priorities instead. The good thing about a lifetime subscription is that I can go back at any time, which sounds like a chain-smoking alcoholic that says, "I can quit any time" - and is just as meaningful.
I was more than happy to hear the previous attempt by Amazon at a Lord of the Rings MMO died and really don't like hearing that another attempt is being made.
One reason is that I play Lord of the Rings Online and there's no way in hell Amazon could ever come close to matching what that game is and has been. Yes, it's very long in the tooth and there are plenty of issues with it but it's still fun and it's the one MMO I've gone back to many times. My primary issue is that if the Amazon LOTR MMO does actually come to fruition it will mean the end of Lotro. The likelihood of there being two MMOs of the same IP is practically zero. It wouldn't be surprising to see Lotro closed down no matter what simply because the company which recently purchased the rights to LOTR and The Hobbit will look only at money and there's no way the owners of Lotro could match what Amazon would pay. For a very long time Lotro was limited in what it could and could not do regarding the original IP which is one of the reasons you don't see off the wall stuff with regards to the lore in that game. It was in the contract for the license that Lotro must fit everything within the lore or lose the license.
I wonder, you might end up with two if the license has a protection protocol in place with something like....
"As long as the IP is being honored and the servers and services are in good standing the license holder shall be allowed to perpetuate the license at the agreed upon rate for perpetuity."
I doubt that last word is in there, but there should be some protections for LOTRO protecting it's access and use of the license from being unceremoniously revoked.
Not to say Amazon won't roll in and offer them an oodle of cash to drop it.
I've never seen the actual licensing agreement of course, but it has been known for years that the license is by no mean in perpetuity. It has always been for a set amount of time with re-negotiation required every time the license was up for renewal. All the current owner of the IP has to do now is not re-negotiate the license for Lotro. I don't know the length of the license for the current contract because it has been years since I heard anything official or semi-official about the license but I suspect there's not a lot of time left for the license.
No matter what it would be years before Amazon could excrete whatever turd it proposes for a Lord of the Rings MMO so Lotro has some time.