After cancelling its Lord of the Rings MMO and laying off a large number of developers, Amazon Gaming general manager Jeff Gattis has argued that “nothing’s been cancelled” behind-the-scenes.
Following recent statements that Amazon is looking to create new Lord of the Rings games. As Kingdom Come Deliverance studio Warhorse works on its massive LOTR RPG, which has been described as “deeply immersive”, Amazon wants to continue throwing its hat into the ring.
Speaking to IGN during Summer Games Fest, Amazon Gaming GM Jeff Gattis explained that Amazon is looking to create its own games set in Middle-Earth. While Amazon TV continues to work on its Rings of Power series, the gaming branch of the tech giant wants to create high-quality video games.
“Our creative team continues to explore a compelling new game experience that does justice to Tolkien’s world,” the Amazon Gaming exec told the outlet. “We are working closely with Middle-earth and remain excited about the IP.”
Gattis explained that “nothing’s been cancelled per se”, despite the fact that multiple developers have claimed the in-development Lord of the Rings MMO was scrapped. Instead, it’s claimed that Amazon is currently evaluating a number of concepts for games set in Middle-Earth.
“It’s not the most satisfying answer, but the true answer is we’re still looking at a number of different things,” Gattis said. “I looked at a project a couple of weeks ago that I thought was quite compelling that perhaps we can go forward with. But evaluating different concepts is trying to figure out what game we want to make, what’s the right one for our audience, what’s the right one for the broader audience. And my hope is that we’ll get there.”
With this comment in mind, it seems that Amazon doesn’t currently have any Lord of the Rings game in active development right now. While Gattis cofnirmed that Amazon has “a ton in development right now”, it seems that games based on Tolkein’s iconic world have not been pushed past pre-production.
Additionally Gattis confirmed that Amazon is not “focused on creating new IP”. Instead, the company is looking to invest in “innovative game mechanics”, although it might take a while to come to fruition. “We almost just wish this stuff could come quicker,” he said.
Amazon is far from the only company looking to continue propping up existing IPs in the gaming space. Just this week, Paramount confirmed plans to massively expand Star Trek into a vast gaming empire with a slew of new titles for PC and console. Additionally, Hasbro is investing a billion dollars into new games based on Dungeons and Dragons, Transformers and other IPs with new AAA-budget titles.
When it comes to Amazon, Gattis confirmed that the company is committed to AAA games and large budgets. With this in mind, whenever we see the company’s Lord of the Rings games, they will likely be quite expensive projects to create.
