Amazon Is Trying to Make aLord of the RingsMMO (Again)

Amazon is willing to dowhatever it takesto get what it can out of the share of Middle - earth it hold — including working with the other proverbial ringbearers in the franchise’scomplex web of rights - owners . And if that means try again at the Earth of gaming , so be it .

Today Amazon Games and Embracer Group — the latter of which , as theowner of midway - earthly concern Enterprises , has the adaptive rights to many element of Tolkien ’s Lord of the Rings and Hobbit story that Amazon does not through its deal to make Rings of Power — announced a partnership to formulate a brand new Massively Multiplayer Online RPG position in midway - world .

The as - yet - untitled game will be make grow by Amazon Games ’ own Amazon Games Orange County studio , the squad behind Amazon ’s prior MMO New World , which live a diplomatically jumpy launching . The novel Middle - dry land MMO will be built off the same Azoth Engine as New World , but develop in a young form that Amazon intends to “ save something that feel distinct from New World and equip for the world of center - terra firma . The team has some big plans for the next generation of New World ’s Azoth Engine that will unlock exciting new possibilities for its take on center - terra firma . ” ( Unsurprisingly , they like being able to say “ midway - earth ” a lot . )

Image: Standing Stone Games

This is neither the first MMO set in Tolkien ’s world — Lord of the Rings Online , developed by Standing Stone Games , has been running since 2007 — nor is iteven the first timeAmazon has announce that it ’s work on a Lord of the Rings MMO . In the run up to Rings of Power ’s release , Amazon announce that it would team up with the Chinese developer Leyou Technologies to work on thecompany ’s own MMO , set before the events of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings , but the deal ultimately collapsed amid Leyou ’s acquisition by Chinese colossus Tencent . “ We were so unrestrained to get that first chance to build an MMO based on one of the reality ’s most beloved fantasy properties , so it broke our centre when that initial deal ultimately fell through , ” Christoph Hartmann , frailty president of Amazon Games , said in a press release . “ We were so endear to Tolkien ’s mankind and the project that we never give up on the theory of one day work it back to the mesa . So , you may imagine our right-down pleasure when our friends at Embracer Group and Middle - terra firma Enterprises formally break us the immature Inner Light to get to study . ”

peradventure this time , given a direct collaboration between two of the major rights proprietor of in-between - earth ’s Brobdingnagian and complex history , things might seem better - destine to in reality pan out .

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