Against the backdrop of reports Amazon gutted its video games division With the company cutting 14,000 jobs earlier this week, one former developer suggested that the Lord of the Rings MMO had also been cancelled.
On Tuesday, Bloomberg shared with employees an internal memo from Steven Boom (Amazon's vice president of audio, Twitchand Game), announcing “significant role cuts” at Amazon Game Studios. Boom added that the job cuts were a result of the company's decision to halt “a significant amount of our AAA game development work, particularly in the MMO space.” Amazon has not yet disclosed the exact number of affected employees in its gaming division.
Following the announcement, affected employees began announcing their departure from Amazon on social media, with subsequent posts suggesting teams from two projects – The New World and the yet-to-be-released MMO The Lord of the Rings. announced back in 2023 – both were injured. However, a LinkedIn post from former senior gameplay engineer Ashley Amrin states that the Lord of the Rings MMO will now never see the light of day.
“I was part of the layoffs at Amazon Games this morning,” Amreen wrote“along with my incredibly talented colleagues at New World and our fledgling Lord of the Rings game (you would all love it).”
If MMO “The Lord of the Rings” from Amazon is canceled, this would be the second such project to end in death under the company's watch. Previously this announced a new MMO “The Lord of the Rings” back in 2019, but abandoned it amid reports of a dispute with the Chinese megacorporation Tencent.. Eurogamer has contacted Amazon to comment on the fate of Tolkien's recent MMO.
As for New World, Amazon has now confirmed the MMO. will no longer receive updatesbut will remain playable for now. The company guaranteed that the servers would operate “until 2026” and promised to provide “a minimum of six months' notice” before making changes that would affect their availability. More details about his future will emerge “in the coming months.”
