Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Gaming
  3. News

Amazon’s New World team is making a The Lord of the Rings MMO

By

Amazon Games Orange County, the development team behind New World, announced that it is making a The Lord of the Rings MMO for PC and consoles.

This game was made possible thanks to a deal between Amazon and the Embracer Group-owned Freemode, which is the parent company of The Lord of the Rings stewards Middle-Earth Enterprises. This isn’t the first time Amazon and Embracer Group have partnered either, as Amazon Games is set to publish the next Tomb Raider game from Embracer-owned studio Crystal Dynamics. This also isn’t Amazon’s first attempt at making a multiplayer game based on The Lord of the Rings.

Recommended Videos

Previously, it collaborated with the Chinese company Leyou on an MMO set in this world, but it was canceled after Leyou got acquired by Tencent. Now, with Middle-Earth Enterprises under new ownership, which Amazon just so happens to be friendly with, it has become possible for Amazon to make a multiplayer game based on The Lord of the Rings once again.

EMBARGO 5/15: The key art for Amazon's upcoming MMO based on The Lord of the Rings.
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Amazon describes its upcoming The Lord of the Rings game as “an open-world MMO adventure in a persistent world set in Middle-earth, featuring the beloved stories of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings literary trilogy.” This game seems to fall in line with the string of MMOs that Amazon has been behind lately, which includes New World, Lost Ark, and upcoming titles Blue Protocol and Throne and Liberty. It is unrelated to The Rings of Power, the big-budget television show that Amazon Studios produces.

Please enable Javascript to view this content

As the game is in “the early stages of production,” according to Amazon, we don’t yet have a release window for it. In the meantime, there are going to be a lot of other games based on The Lord of the Rings to play, including EA’s mobile game The Lord of the Rings: Heroes of Middle-Earth and Daedelic Entertainment’s action-adventure game about Gollum.

Editors’ Recommendations

Topics
Tomas Franzese
Tomas Franzese
Gaming Staff Writer
As a Gaming Staff Writer at Digital Trends, Tomas Franzese reports on and reviews the latest releases and exciting…
SteamWorld Heist 2 makes an underappreciated classic even better
A robot shoot a big mech boss in Steamworld Heist 2.

Back in 2015, developer Image & Form was thriving in the Nintendo 3DS era. Its game SteamWorld Dig had a breakthrough moment two years before, bringing new fans to its unique steampunk world. Rather than following that up with a quick and easy sequel, it would veer into left field with SteamWorld Heist. It wasn't another Dig Dug-like platformer, but a turn-based strategy game that played more like Worms. Though it may not be as popular as SteamWorld Dig and its sequel, it's a hidden gem that's been begging for a sequel.

That'll happen on August 8 with SteamWorld Heist 2. The sequel builds on the original's winning formula, while taking it to new heights. I got a sense of just how much bigger it is when sitting down for a demo at Summer Game Fest earlier this month. Imagine the jump in scope between the first two SteamWorld Dig games, and that's what you can expect from SteamWorld Heist 2.

Read more
New World: Aeternum made a lot of necessary changes to work on console
Key art for New World Aeternum.

Amazon had a rocky start in the video game industry, but eventually found its footing with PC MMOs like Lost Ark, which was only published in the West, and New World, which it developed internally. Since it launched in 2021, New World has been a PC-exclusive, but that's changing soon. At Summer Game Fest, Amazon announced that it is bringing the game to the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S this October with some major content reworks and updates, as well as a new name: New World: Aeternum.

I went hands-on with New World: Aeternum at Summer Game Fest Play Days this year, and while I only played a little bit of New World on PC, I can already tell that a lot of work has been put into making this PC MMO feel good to play on console. On top of that, the solo experience also doesn't feel off-putting, as is typically thae case in MMOs.

Read more
The team behind Hyper Light Drifter just revealed a beautiful new game
The main character dashes in Possessor(s).

Possessor(s) | Reveal Trailer

Heart Machine, the developer behind excellent indie games like Hyper Light Drifter and Solar Ash, isn't just working on Hyper Light Breaker right now. It just revealed Possessor(s) during this year's Devolver Direct.

Read more