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Amazon Games announces deal to create Lord of the Rings MMO

Embracer Group's Middle-earth Enterprises signed a deal with Amazon to create a Lord of the Rings MMO from the developers that brought us New World.

TJ Denzer

May 15, 2023 10:15 AM

Image via Warner Bros. Pictures

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It looks like Amazon Games has targeted its next big project and it’s set in the Lord of the Rings universe. It’s been a little under a year since Embracer Group acquired the rights to the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit IP rights, and with it, they have signed a deal with Amazon Games to produce a Lord of the Rings MMO. What’s more, it will be in development at Amazon Games Orange County - the studio that developed New World.

Amazon Games and Embracer Group subsidiary Middle-earth Enterprises announced their deal via a press release from Amazon on May 15, 2023. Under the agreement, Amazon Games is slated to develop and publish a massively multiplayer online game set in Toldien’s Lord of the Rings universe. On the Embracer side, the project was signed off by Middle-earth Enterprises, which is the subsidiary established after Embracer acquired the rights to the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit IPs. The game will be developed and published by Amazon Games and released globally on PC and consoles.

Amazon itself is not a stranger to the Lord of the Rings franchise, having produced and launched the popular TV series The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power on Prime Video. Meanwhile, the team behind the direct development of the game also developed New World, which has continued to remain active and recently moved to a seasonal format earlier this year. At the very least, Amazon Games Orange County has experience in the MMO space and has probably learned a thing or two from its maintenance of New World.

There’s no expected date or even year for Amazon Games and Embracer’s new Lord of the Rings MMO, so stay tuned for further details, including reveals and launch windows, as they become available.

TJ Denzer

Senior News Editor

TJ Denzer is a player and writer with a passion for games that has dominated a lifetime. He found his way to the Shacknews roster in late 2019 and has worked his way to Senior News Editor since. Between news coverage, he also aides notably in livestream projects like the indie game-focused Indie-licious, the Shacknews Stimulus Games, and the Shacknews Dump. You can reach him at tj.denzer@shacknews.com and also find him on Twitter @JohnnyChugs.