Amazon’s Lord Of The Rings TV series is set to be one of the biggest spectacles ever seen on television. With an undisclosed budget spiralling into the (assumed millions), it makes sense that a video game set in the same universe would follow.
The Lord Of The Rings MMO was originally announced by Athlon Games, a studio owned by the conglomerate Leyou, a Hong Kong-based game company, last year. In that announcement, it was said the company was working with a “partner developer”, and it turns out it’s Amazon.
Although fans expected the game and the series to be linked, Amazon says the two projects are independent of each other and being developed separately. Athlon’s press release of the game covered some of the basic details about the game, including its prequel setting to the original trilogy and books.
There aren’t many details about the game so far. However, a spokesperson from Middle-Earth Enterprises said it “explore epic regions in Middle-earth” in events in the lead up to the Lord of the Rings film trilogy.
This isn’t the first time there’s been a Lord of The Rings MMO. Lords of The Rings Online released in 2007 and got its last update in October 2018. However, a quick look at the Steam charts shows there are less than 1,000 players logging on every day.
There’s a good opening in the market for a new LOTR MMO. For those worried about the classic IP, both Leyou and Amazon have strong MMO credentials.
Leyou owns Digital Extremes, the guys behind the extremely popular MMO Warframe, and Amazon Game Studios is currently developing New World, their first MMO.
It’s no surprise that Amazon is utilizing its Lord of the Rings license to the fullest extent. Few franchises have the pulling power of Lord of the Rings, and the success of Shadow of Mordor recently proves fans are still keen on the franchise.
During the mid-2000s there were many successful Lord of the Rings games released following the success of the trilogy, including the RTS Battle for Middle-earth games. Or the excellent Lord of the Rings games on Play Station.
