Overview
- Amazon Games general manager Jeff Gattis told Polygon that creatives have been evaluating and reviewing LOTR prototypes and concept work in recent weeks, though nothing is confirmed.
- Reporting from May and interviews with Amazon indicate the previously announced LOTR MMO largely unraveled after the company's 2025 layoffs, even though Amazon has not formally declared the project cancelled.
- Amazon is reducing its focus on large-scale MMOs and plans to sunset its existing MMO New World in January 2027, which has reshaped staffing and project priorities inside the studio.
- If Amazon proceeds with a new LOTR title it will face competition: Warhorse Studios announced in May that it is developing an open-world game set in Middle-earth.
- The situation has sparked broader debate about corporate stewardship of Tolkien's work and could mean future Middle-earth games are smaller or more closely managed to avoid the scale and costs of a full MMO.