Amazon wants its second LOTR MMO to last for over a decade

Amazon Games VP Christoph Hartmann says the company wants its next LOTR MMO to last for more than a decade.

Thanks to an agreement with Embracer Group, owner of the Middle Earth Enterprises holding company, Amazon Games is working on a new Lord of the Rings MMO.

The companies announced the news earlier this week while noting that New World developer Amazon Games Orange County will helm the project.

Notably, this doesn’t mark the mega corporation’s first attempt at a LOTR-branded MMORPG. Amazon previously partnered with Leyou Technologies to build a Middle-earth-set adventure. The endeavor fell to the cutting room floor in 2021 after Tencent acquired the development team.

Amazon aims to support its new LOTR MMO for a decade-plus

Speaking about “bending the rules” of LOTR lore in a GamesIndustry.biz interview, Amazon Games VP Christoph Hartmann stated the following:

“I definitely want to put the game first to make sure it’s a great game, because as I said, we want people to play for ten years, and it’s not going to help me if someone is saying, ‘That’s a perfect representation of the book in a game.’ If you’re really into that, read the book…”

The Vice President reiterated the company’s 10-year plan upon discussing his refusal to rush the game out the door. “It’s done when it’s done and when it’s ready. That’s it. I want that thing to be alive for ten years plus. We’re not going to ship something which is not ready,” he said in part.

New Line

Whether or not this 10-year plan for Amazon’s LOTR MMO will come to fruition, of course, remains to be seen. World of Warcraft proves that players will readily return to a game for years on end if there’s enough incentive.

The question, then, is whether Amazon’s Orange County crew can strike the same cord with a large enough user base. Since the MMO won’t see the light of day for at least the next several years, it’s impossible to judge whether or not the team is up to the task.