Fans of “The Lord of the Rings” video games have not had an easy go of things. For every announcement about an upcoming project, there have been letdowns and missteps. “Tales of the Shire” was a disappointment, we don’t speak about that “Gollum” game, and Warner Bros. shut down the studio that made the “Shadows of Mordor” duology. As if fans needed to be dealt yet another blow, Amazon Games’ ambitious MMORPG has been cancelled, amongst a slew or corporate layoffs.
After Embracer Group got the video game rights for the franchise, it was only a matter of time before they started making titles. They eventually partnered with Amazon Games to develop the LoTR MMORPG. Amazon had been developing and working on other titles in the genre, such as “New World” and “Lost Ark.” MMORPGs are not cheap to make, but certainly Amazon of all companies would have the resources pull it off.
As it turns out, they HAD the resources, not but anymore.
It was part of the company that saw at least 14,000 positions cut across various divisions. This included Twitch, Audible, and yes, Amazon Games. Reports indicate this is part of a larger strategic shift for the company to move out of game development. Head of the above mentioned Amazon divisions Steve Boom said they’d “made the difficult decision to halt a significant amount of our first-party AAA game development work – specifically around MMOs – within Amazon Game Studio.”
The video game industry has been hurting pretty heavily lately overall thanks to ballooning game budgets, economic shifts, and arguable mismanagement from large companies. The only company that seems to be doing well is Nintendo, with Switch 2 sales being extremely healthy. Microsoft has been fumbling around with price hikes to consoles and Game Pass and Sony still reeling from their “Concord” disaster. Is it surprising then Amazon would want out of a volatile market?
Perhaps it’s not too much of a shock, but it is frustrating to see one of the biggest IPs in the world continue to struggle getting off the ground in the video game space. If one of the largest companies in the world can’t see a way to make a LoTR MMORPG happen, it’s not a great sign for things to come. Hopefully the other developing game set in Middle-earth will rise above to bring the series back into the good graces of gamers. Until then, our hearts go out to all those involved in the project whose jobs were lost.
