Overview
- Multiple outlets reported Thursday that Amazon ended work on its planned Lord of the Rings MMO following October 2025 layoffs and a shift in strategy.
- Amazon’s head of games Jeff Grattis said the company is still working closely with Middle‑earth Enterprises on a new game experience, without confirming the MMO’s return.
- Sources said more than 1,000 New World developers were moving to the LOTR team before the cuts, and New World is slated to go offline on January 31, 2027.
- Public pages for the MMO disappeared from Amazon Games’ website, and sources described the project as early pre‑production with minimal staff before a late ramp‑up.
- An internal memo said Amazon halted much first‑party AAA MMO work, this follows a previous LOTR MMO canceled after Tencent bought partner Leyou in 2020, and separate reporting detailed an AI push that reshaped other projects like the unshipped Project Trident.