„You would have loved it.” Amazon's Lord of the Rings MMO was planned to last a decade, but it didn't even make it to release
Amazon had a lot of plans for its new Lord of the Rings MMO. Meanwhile, the game has become just another victim of major layoffs.
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Lord of the Rings won't get a new MMORPG from Amazon after the recent major layoffs.
The news from Ashleigh Amrine probably won't surprise anyone, but it's likely to disappoint Lord of the Rings fans. As the developer stated, she was one of many people who lost their jobs as a result of mass layoffs at Amazon, including at Amazon Games.
On LinkedIn, Amrine shared that some people left the studio who were working on New World and also on a new project set in J.R.R. Tolkien's universe. She also mentioned that it was a game players would "absolutely love," made by the "most talented, creative, and nicest" devs she's ever worked with.
As we have already mentioned, the news conveyed by her is not surprising. When Amazon announced "job cuts" at its development studio, the company explained that it had halted work on several high-budget projects—"particularly in the area of MMOs." That info didn't inspire optimism about the future of the new Lord of the Rings game.
The project that was announced in 2023 has not shown many signs of life for the past 2.5 years. In May 2024, Christoph Hartmann, the head of Amazon Games, stated that the game is still in the early stages of development. Now it seems that the title, which was supposed to last 10 years, didn't even make it to its release.
As for Amrine, she's planning to take a break after spending 10 years at Amazon's studio. But her developer friends are already nudging her to join another team, like CD Projekt or Zynga. Looks like Amazon is probably going to play a big role in setting a new record for layoffs in the gaming industry. According to unofficial information, between 14,000 and even 30,000 people may lose their jobs.
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Author: Jacob Blazewicz
Graduated with a master's degree in Polish Studies from the University of Warsaw with a thesis dedicated to this very subject. Started his adventure with gamepressure.com in 2015, writing in the Newsroom and later also in the film and technology sections (also contributed to the Encyclopedia). Interested in video games (and not only video games) for years. He began with platform games and, to this day, remains a big fan of them (including Metroidvania). Also shows interest in card games (including paper), fighting games, soulslikes, and basically everything about games as such. Marvels at pixelated characters from games dating back to the time of the Game Boy (if not older).
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