A new Lord of the Rings massively-multiplayer online game is in production at Amazon Games, made in partnership with Swedish firm Embracer Group.
Amazon has begun development on the new LOTR at its studio in Orange County, Calif. Embracer Group is involved via its subsidiary Middle-earth Enterprises, which it purchased and rebranded in August.
The new game is described by Amazon as an “open-world MMO adventure.” Between Amazon Games and Embracer, two of the largest companies in the modern space, it can safely be assumed that this will be a big-budget production. No other details about the game were revealed.
“We’re committed to bringing players high-quality games, whether through original IPs or long-beloved ones like The Lord of the Rings,” Amazon Games VP Christoph Hartmann said in a statement. “Bringing players a fresh take on The Lord of the Rings has long been an aspiration for our team.”
This is Amazon’s second try at a Lord of the Rings gaming project. In 2021 the company pulled the plug on a planned free-to-play LOTR game, apparently due to an unspecified dispute between Amazon and its partner at the time, Tencent.
The new LOTR project joins a lineup at Amazon that includes its MMORPG New World; a next-generation reboot of the Tomb Raider franchise; publishing Bandai Namco’s MMO Blue Protocol; and publishing NCSoft’s Throne & Liberty in North America, South America, Europe, and Japan.
It’s also another LOTR project for Amazon’s media arm. The Seattle tech giant debuted its “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” show on Prime Video last year.
Embracer Group has made a number of big moves in the last few years, primarily through acquiring a variety of independent publishers and developers in media and production spaces. It previously bought Portland’s Dark Horse Comics for an undisclosed sum in late 2021.
Other gaming companies in Embracer’s portfolio include Crystal Dynamics (currently working on Tomb Raider at Amazon), Gearbox, THQ Nordic, Plaion/Deep Silver, and tabletop publisher Asmodee. At this point, it’s become increasingly difficult to find a working game publisher/developer in the Eurozone that doesn’t have ties to Embracer.
Upon completion, Amazon’s Lord of the Rings would be the second currently-operating MMO based upon Tolkien’s stories, joining Daybreak’s The Lord of the Rings Online. LOTRO flies under many current fans’ radar, but recently celebrated its 16th anniversary. Independent population trackers show that roughly 30,000 players log onto LOTRO every day.
