Amazon cancels Lord of the Rings MMO following dispute with Tencent

Amazon has cancelled its Lord of the Rings MMO title, which it announced two years ago.

That’s according to Bloomberg, who report that this latest setback for Amazon’s gaming ambitions was caused by a dispute with Tencent.

Amazon Game Studios announced back in July 2019 that it was co-developing a free to play Lord of the Rings MMO, working alongside the LA-based Athlon Games. In December, Atahlon’s parent company Leyou Technologies was acquired by Tencent. According to Bloomberg, this lead to contract negotiations that eventually lead to the project’s demise.

“We love the Lord of the Rings IP, and are disappointed that we won’t be bringing this game to customers,” said an Amazon spokesperson to Bloomberg.

The game was scheduled to come out in 2022, and was set prior to the events in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, promising to feature “lands, people and creatures never seen before.”

The Amazon team working on the game will be moved on to other projects, the company revealed.

This is just the latest in a string of bad news for Amazon’s gaming division, which has already cancelled a number of projects since its founding in 2014  – and has yet to release a successful game. The company shut down development on its free to play multiplayer shooter Crucible just five months after the game’s launch. New World, another Amazon Games MMO title, has been repeatedly delayed.