"While we don't have official confirmation from Amazon itself, as Rock Paper Shotgun noticed, an engineer named Ashleigh Amrine posted an update on their LinkedIn. While the post is gone now, it said, "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).""
"That certainly implies the project was canned and the team was laid off. And it would genuinely be a huge move if the Lord of the Rings MMO was cancelled, as it's easily Amazon's biggest in-development project. Before these layoffs, we knew the Lord of the Rings game was in production, as well as a new untitled Tomb Raider project, another untitled online role-playing game, and an untitled open-world driving game."
Amazon sharply reduced its video game operations during nearly 14,000 companywide layoffs and reportedly canceled a second Lord of the Rings MMORPG. An engineer's LinkedIn post implied the project and its team were cut, though Amazon has not officially confirmed the cancellation. The Lord of the Rings MMO was among Amazon Games' largest in-development projects alongside other untitled titles including a Tomb Raider entry, an online role-playing game, and an open-world driving game. Cancellation would indicate a strategic shift away from heavy MMO investment after publishing and developing multiple MMOs that risk competing for the same player bases.
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