Amazon Games‘ upcoming The Lord of the Ring MMO has reportedly been shelved in wake of the studio announcing a number of company layoffs.
While nothing official has been confirmed by Amazon Games yet, the a former employee at the studio posted on LinkedIn that they were among those who were laid off last week, and indicated that The Lord of the Rings MMO has also been scrapped.
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. 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.
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As part of the announcement of layoffs, Amazon Games also confirmed that it was stepping away from the development of MMO titles, which would explain the reported cancellation of The Lord of the Rings MMO. Elsewhere, the studio also revealed that it was keeping New World online through 2026, but development for new content had ceased.
The Lord of the Rings MMO was a collaboration between Amazon Games and Embracer Group, with core development handled by Amazon Studios Orange County – the same team responsible for the aforementioned New World. Announced in 2023, the game was set to span the events of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings trilogy.