Leyou And Amazon's F2P Lord Of The Rings MMO Has Been Cancelled

By Jason Winter, News Editor Posted: April 17, 2021

The free-to-play Lord of the Rings MMO game that was announced by Leyou Technologies in 2018 and said to be co-developed and co-published by Amazon Games in 2019 has been cancelled.

Bloomberg's Jason Schreier reports that the game was cancelled after Tencent acquired Leyou late last year. That resulted in a "dispute" between Tencent and Amazon that could not be resolved, with an Amazon spokesperson saying that "we have been unable to secure terms to proceed with this title at this time."

The Amazon employees who were working on the game will be re-assigned to other projects. "We love the Lord of the Rings IP, and are disappointed that we won’t be bringing this game to customers," the spokesperson said.

Normally, an American game company not being able to work with Tencent would lead people to put the blame on the shoulders of the Chinese behemoth. However, given Amazon's abysmal record at producing games -- Breakaway's and Crucible's cancellations, along with New World's delays -- they haven't earned the benefit of the doubt. In addition to New World, they're going to be the publisher for Smilegate's Lost Ark, but it's hard to feel optimistic about either venture.

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In this article: Smilegate, Lost Ark, Tencent, New World, Leyou Technologies, Athlon Games, Amazon Games.

About the Author

Jason Winter, News Editor
Jason Winter is a veteran gaming journalist, he brings a wide range of experience to MMOBomb, including two years with Beckett Media where he served as the editor of the leading gaming magazine Massive Online Gamer. He has also written professionally for several gaming websites.

Nitu 2 years ago

Amazon should just stick to selling products and gtfo of the gaming industry. New World hype is over and that’s basically their last chance.

Hicks64 2 years ago

Amazon paid 1 billion for the LotR license up until 2022... and they really wanted to cross-promote the most expensive TV show ever with this MMO. Pretty shocked they couldn't or wouldn't salvage something after paying so much money for the IP and years of wages towards this game.

Dumbledalf 2 years ago

Tencent probably wanted to make the LOTR game into some anime chibi gacha mobile game and throw the lore out of the window and just keep the name so it sells. Not that Amazon could have made it better, but Asian developers are good at making Asian-themed games and Western developers are good at making Western-themed games, just leave it at that.

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Keesasha 2 years ago

I have a feeling Amazon is gonna abandon the gaming division, they just can't seem to make anything worth playing even with all the money in the world...

Bad Noob 2 years ago

this is the end of games like this. they do not make games like this free to play while starting out, they cannot attract players even if they give money to their base as long as the player loses. i am happy.