The Lord of the Rings MMO in growth at Amazon has been cancelled, however there’s nonetheless a Tolkien-based one thing on the way in which, Eurogamer reviews. The destiny of the Lord of the Rings MMO has been unsure since October 2025, when Amazon laid off a good portion of its Video games division, shuttered its four-year-old MMO, New World: Aeternum, and reduce method again on main recreation investments.
Amazon passively confirmed the cancellation of the Lord of the Rings MMO to Eurogamer, which requested for a remark after listening to from studio insiders this 12 months that it was formally shelved. Amazon’s gaming lead Jeff Grattis stated, “Our inventive staff continues to discover a compelling new recreation expertise that does justice to Tolkien’s world; we’re working intently with Center-earth and stay excited concerning the IP.” That is as near a “yeah, that huge ol’ MMO is lifeless” because it comes, in advertising and marketing converse.
The New World staff, Amazon Video games Orange County, started publicly working on the Lord of the Rings MMO in 2023. When the layoffs rolled via two years later, Amazon stated in a workers memo that it was withdrawing assist for big-budget titles and particularly MMOs, however the firm did not identify names. Round that point, a former senior gameplay engineer apparently posted and then deleted a LinkedIn message alluding to the demise of the Lord of the Rings MMO (whereas breaking our hearts much more): “This morning I used to be a part of the layoffs at Amazon Video games alongside my extremely proficient friends on New World and our fledgling Lord of the Rings recreation (y’all would have cherished it).”
Claims of the cancellation emerged this week as half of a bigger Eurogamer investigation into Amazon’s generative-AI mandates and subsequent layoffs.
Amazon nonetheless has rights to make video video games based mostly on The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit underneath its 2023 take care of Embracer Group, and it is also producing the Rings of Energy tv present based mostly on JRR Tolkien’s works. Amazon just lately introduced it was shutting down Glowmade’s dungeon crawler King of Meat simply six months after launch, and it is at present centered on simplifying Luna, its game-streaming service, in an overt bid to make Prime subscriptions extra engaging.
Let’s hope the equation of (has LotR license) + (wants Luna content material) + (is OK with AI in inventive settings) does not result in one thing dreadful right here.
