Amazon Studios Announces Their Development Of A ‘Lord Of The Rings’ MMO

Amazon Studios are currently developing a Lord of the Rings MMO game on PC, according to multiple reports. They announced they are developing this game with Leyou Technologies and Athlon Games in order to create a free-to-play MMO set in the Lord of the Rings universe.

The game will be based off J.R.R. Tolkien‘s novels, rather than the movie trilogy. There is no release date set yet, but Amazon also announced their development of a Lord of the Rings TV show, which will be a prequel set before the novels, during the Second Age.

“The game will give fans around the globe a new, immersive game experience for epic exploration of the vast world of Tolkien,” a press release from Amazon stated, according to Gamespot.

Amazon Studios is a fairly new developer, with only a few games under their belt, including Lost Within, Til Morning’s Light and Crucible. It will be interesting how they treat such a beloved franchise, one with many die-hard fans who want the developers to do the game justice. There is no confirmation whether or not it will just be for PC, but it’s looking like if it were to come out on consoles, it would be for the next-gen Xbox Scarlett and PlayStation 5.

Middle-Earth Enterprises, which controls the rights to the novels and non-literary rights to all of Tolkien’s work regarding Lord of the Rings, reveals they are excited about the game, and will be involved personally, meaning the game should get the lore down to a tee when it comes to the characters and story.

“Who among us hasn’t wanted to take part in an epic adventure,” Middle-earth Enterprises boss Fredrica Drotos said in a statement, according to Gamespot. “More than 60 years after the publication of The Fellowship of the Ring, we’re delighted that Amazon Game Studios has partnered with Leyou to bring their respective expertise to build a much anticipated game that will immerse us in the beloved, epic world of Middle-earth, envisioned by Professor Tolkien.”

Leyou Technologies has previously invested in efforts such as Gears of War 4‘s multiplayer, the Halo and Call of Duty series and Warframe.