Amazon’s Lord of the Rings MMO has reportedly also been cancelled
Laid-off Amazon Games worker suggests LoTR game has been axed as part of significant cuts
Amazon’s planned Lord of the Rings MMO game has been cancelled as part of this week’s significant layoffs across the company, it’s claimed.
That’s according to a LinkedIn post of an Amazon Games worker who lost their job this week, who suggested in a post (spotted by RPS) that the planned Tolkien game has also fallen under Amazon’s axe.
“This morning I was part of the layoffs at Amazon Games, alongside my incredibly talented peers on New World and our fledgling Lord of the Rings game (y’all would have loved it),” they wrote.
“It’s always tough to see such a strong team go through something like this – I’ve been lucky to work with some of the most skilled, creative, and kind developers I’ve ever met here.”
If accurate, the cancellation comes as little surprise, considering Amazon Games’ comments this week that it’s stepping away from MMO development and ending development of its existing online game New World.
Amazon announced a huge round of layoffs on Tuesday, which are said to have affected at least 14,000 jobs, including a significant number of people at New World’s developer, Amazon Games Orange County.
Amazon’s latest plans for a Lord of the Rings MMO were announced in 2023, as part of a partnership with Middle-Earth rights-owner Embracer. The game was described as a “persistent open-world MMO adventure” spanning the events of The Hobbit and the LOTR trilogy.
