According to Eurogamer.net, Amazon has reportedly cancelled its Lord of the Rings MMO following significant layoffs across its gaming division. The cuts are part of broader 14,000 company-wide job reductions announced this week, with Amazon vice president Steven Boom confirming “significant role reductions” and the halt of “a significant amount of our first-party AAA game development work – specifically around MMOs.” Former senior gameplay engineer Ashleigh Amrine revealed on LinkedIn that she was laid off “alongside my incredibly talented peers on New World and our fledgling Lord of the Rings game,” strongly suggesting the Tolkien project’s cancellation. This would mark the second Lord of the Rings MMO Amazon has cancelled, following a 2019 project that was scrapped amid reported disputes with Tencent. Meanwhile, Amazon confirmed its existing MMO New World will no longer receive updates but will remain playable through at least 2026.
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The Collapse of Amazon’s Gaming Ambitions
This development represents a stunning reversal for Amazon’s gaming strategy, which once positioned MMOs as central to its entertainment ecosystem. The company invested heavily in building Amazon Game Studios with the explicit goal of creating persistent online worlds that could leverage Amazon’s cloud infrastructure and potentially integrate with its broader media properties. The Lord of the Rings cancellation, combined with New World’s transition to maintenance mode, suggests Amazon is abandoning the very genre it identified as strategically important just a few years ago. This retreat from AAA MMO development raises serious questions about whether Amazon ever understood the gaming market’s unique challenges or simply viewed it as another content category to conquer through sheer financial might.
The Tolkien Licensing Curse Continues
The cancellation marks another failed attempt to capitalize on the Lord of the Rings franchise in the gaming space, continuing a troubling pattern for rights holders. Developing successful MMOs requires balancing massive technical challenges with compelling gameplay systems, and adding the weight of Tolkien’s beloved universe creates additional creative constraints that few studios have managed to navigate successfully. The only truly successful Lord of the Rings MMO remains Standing Stone Games’ Lord of the Rings Online, which launched in 2007 and continues operating today. Amazon’s second failure suggests either fundamental development issues or a recognition that the MMO market has shifted dramatically since their initial ambitions were formed.
Broader Strategic Implications
Amazon’s retreat from ambitious game development comes at a curious time, given the massive success of its Lord of the Rings television series “The Rings of Power.” The simultaneous investment in streaming content while cutting gaming projects suggests Amazon sees clearer paths to return on investment in traditional media than in interactive entertainment. This also raises questions about the future integration between Amazon’s various entertainment properties and its Twitch streaming platform, which could have benefited from exclusive Amazon-developed games. The gaming division cuts may indicate that Amazon leadership has lost patience with the long development cycles and uncertain returns of AAA game development, preferring to focus resources on more predictable business segments.
The Changing MMO Landscape
Amazon’s exit from MMO development reflects broader industry trends that have seen fewer companies willing to invest the hundreds of millions required for new massively multiplayer online games. The genre has largely shifted toward live service games with MMO-like elements rather than traditional subscription-based virtual worlds. Even established MMO publishers are struggling with player retention and monetization in an increasingly crowded market. Amazon’s experience demonstrates that even with virtually unlimited resources, technical infrastructure advantages, and valuable IP, creating a successful MMO remains one of gaming’s most challenging endeavors. Their failure may further chill investment in the genre from other tech giants considering similar moves into gaming.
