"Amazon has reportedly cancelled its second attempt at developing a Lord of the Rings MMO, following a new round of layoffs at Amazon Games. The news came from former senior gameplay engineer Ashleigh Amrine, who revealed on LinkedIn that she and others working on the project had been let go (via Rock Paper Shotgun). This comes shortly after Amazon also announced it would stop developing New World, its colonial fantasy MMO, though servers will remain active until 2026."
"Last August, Amazon Games VP Christoph Hartmann said part of the challenge had been finding the right "hook," something that would make a Lord of the Rings MMO stand out. He said the team didn't want to simply repeat what's already been done, noting that the long-running The Lord of the Rings Online (which launched in 2007 and still receives updates) already fills that space."
Amazon cancelled a second Lord of the Rings MMO after layoffs at Amazon Games that included former senior gameplay engineer Ashleigh Amrine. The project, announced in 2023 alongside a partnership with Embracer Group, was planned as a persistent open-world adventure spanning events from The Hobbit through The Lord of the Rings. Development ended before public release, following a prior 2019 attempt that collapsed after Leyou was acquired by Tencent in 2021. Amazon previously said finding a unique 'hook' was challenging because The Lord of the Rings Online already occupies the space. Amazon Games is shifting away from MMO-only publishing and reducing New World development.
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