Amazon Game Studios and Leyou Technologies Holdings first announced the development of “Lord of the Rings” MMO in 2019.
Amazon Game Studios recently announced the cancellation of their online role-playing game set in the world of the Lord of the Rings. Comic Book Resources reported that the news first emerged from Bloomberg on Sunday.
The company shared its disappointment regarding the move. This comes after they have spent two years developing the game in partnership with the Chinese video game holding company, Leyou.
In the press release, the studio said that they “love” the IP, and are “disappointed” that they would no longer bring the said game to the public.
Contract disputes between Amazon and Tencent
It remains unclear how the talks of cancellation began. But, reports said that it all came after Tencent Holdings Ltd. acquired Leyou Technologies Holdings Ltd. last December.
There were “contract disputes” between Amazon and Tencent. This reportedly led the game adaptation to being ultimately cancelled. Speaking to The Verge, a spokesperson from Amazon noted that the game studio “was unable to secure terms to proceed” with the title.
The same publication revealed that the team working on the Lord of the Rings MMO project will move on to “other games for the company.”
Lord of the Rings MMORPG first emerged in 2019
Amazon acquired the rights to the Lord of the Rings franchise in 2017. Several reports asserted that the company did not waste time and resources after the acquisition.
Two years later, the game studio announced that they were working with Leyou for a “massively multiplayer online video game set in Middle-earth.” Since then, avid fans of the franchise and gamers have waited for further details about the title. Although unconfirmed, reports said that it was scheduled to arrive in August.
Big news: We’re working with Leyou to develop and publish a free-to-play MMO based on The Lord of the Rings world for consoles and PC. https://t.co/1KxddnBMpo pic.twitter.com/Cr7PrN6dVl
— Amazon Games (@AMZNGameStudios) July 10, 2019
Prior to the cancellation, the public learned that the untitled MMORPG would be available for major consoles and PC. While being in the same franchise, though, it would be unrelated to the upcoming Amazon series.
Amazon develops the Lord of the Rings series
Amazon is also working on the Lord of the Rings series for Prime Video. Hypebeast previously reported that the studio has plans to work on five seasons, along with a few spinoff materials.
The upcoming television series reportedly costs “nearly $500 million” to produce. In comparison to HBO’s Game of Thrones, that would be five times more than the overall figure exhausted for the pilot season. As noted, HBO spent about AU$128 million for Season 1.
The Lord of the Rings will likely drop on Amazon Prime Video later this year.
Featured image courtesy of Vincent/Flickr