Despite the lukewarm reception of the Middle-Earth-based show Rings of Power, Amazon is far from being done with the world of The Lord of the Rings. Multiple video games based on the J.R.R Tolkien-created universe have been in development for some time, including the upcoming The Lord of the Rings: Gollum for multiple platforms. But Amazon Games is planning a return to the MMO realm with a new game based on The Lord of the Rings franchise. Whether it will have strong ties to the Rings of Power show or any specific age within Tolkien’s universe is still unknown, for now.
Amazon Games Orange County, the development team behind New World, is making the newly announced Lord of the Rings MMO role-playing game. The team is teaming up with Embracer Group’s Middle-Earth Enterprises, the current entity that is in charge of everything that is related to media based on The Lord of the Rings. According to news released by Amazon Games, this new game will be an open-world MMO adventure set within Middle-Earth and will be made for PC and consoles. The game is now in the early development stages and probably won’t be completed for a long time.
Amazon had previously tried to put together an MMO based on The Lord of the Rings before but to no avail. That game was canceled by Amazon back in 2021 according to a report by Bloomberg, citing the cause of the cancelation being a business disagreement between Amazon and Tencent. Since the cancelation of that game, there have been very few game releases based on The Lord of the Rings, despite Amazon expressing interest in trying again for some time.
Amazon Games vice president Christopher Hartmann commented on the announcement of the new MMO when speaking with IGN. “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… This is a completely new game because the license is much, much wider… 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…”
Many gamers will remember another game that was released back in 2007 called The Lord of the Rings Online. It was an MMO role-playing game that was released shortly after the mega-popular World of Warcraft, which caused a renewed interest in the MMO genre. While The Lord of the Rings Online was popular among Tolkien fans and MMO players, it never achieved the same type of success or critical praise that World of Warcraft had. Lord of the Rings Online was active for a long time and received a boost in player activity in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic when the DLC content for the game was made free for everyone to play.
Other details about the newly announced Lord of the Rings MMO from Amazon Games are currently unknown. Because development is in the very early stages, we won’t be hearing much about it for a long time. This includes any specific details on whether the game will be set within a certain age of Middle-Earth, or if any of the classic characters featured in Tolkien’s stories will make any appearance in at all. Depending on when the game takes place, who knows if we’ll be receiving quests from fan favorites like Gandalf, Aragorn, Galadriel, or even Elrond. Or if we’ll be fighting the forces of Sauron in any capacity.
CEO of Freemode, Lee Guinchard, also shared some words about the upcoming MMO. “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.”
What do you think about the newly announced Lord of the Rings MMO game? What do you want to see done in it? Share your thoughts about the game in the comment section down below!
