Amazon Game Studios is working on a Lord of the Rings game
It will be based on the original Tolkien trilogy.
- I've been covering technology and mobile for 12 years, first as a telecommunications reporter and assistant editor at ZDNet in Australia, then as CNET's West Coast head of breaking news, and now in the Thought Leadership team.
Amazon is working on an online game separate to the Lord of the Rings prequel series.
A Lord of the Rings online game is coming, and it's being co-produced by Amazon Game Studios and Leyou Technologies' Athlon Games label. The massively multiplayer online game based on the books by J.R.R. Tolkien will be free to play, with a release date yet to be set.
Amazon Game Studios, launched in 2012, makes games including New World, The Grand Tour Game and Crucible. It has studios in San Diego and Orange County, California, and at Amazon's HQ in Seattle.
The new game will be set in Middle-earth during the original Lord of the Rings trilogy and is separate to the Amazon Prime Lord of the Rings series, which is a prequel.
Alex Xu, CEO of Leyou, said he wanted to work with Amazon for its "customer obsession, technology, and talented teams."
There is a "strong leadership team" in place to push forward the new game, Christoph Hartmann, VP of Amazon Game Studios, said, with the studio also growing its team to build the game.
"Tolkien's Middle-earth is one of the richest fictional worlds in history, and it gives our team of experienced MMO developers -- from the same studio developing New World-- tremendous opportunity to play and create," Hartmann said Wednesday.
The announcement comes a month after Amazon Game Studios laid off employees "to prioritize development of New World, Crucible and new unannounced projects we're excited to reveal in the future."
