The DEFINITIVE New Lord of the Rings MMO Everything Known Information Compilation
Compiled by Ryve Genesis
May 16, 2023
✣ACCOMPANYING NEW LORD OF THE RINGS MMO EVERYTHING KNOWN VIDEO✣
✣CREATOR – RYVE GENESIS✣
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✣THE NEW LORD OF THE RINGS MMO EVERYTHING KNOWN SOURCES:✣
Job Postings: https://www.amazon.jobs/en/teams/amazon-game-studios
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/amazongames/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/amazongames
See Announcements and Interviews, Job Listings, and Team below for more sources!
✣THE LORD OF THE RINGS MMO CONFIRMED INFORMATION✣
Partnered with Embracer Group
The Timeline is around 2941 to 3019, the time of the Stories of the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings
The story of the MMO might not be 100% true to the original story in order to make for a better play experience.
Uses the same Game Engine as New World, with some upgrades and modifications for this new MMO
Being developed at AGS Irvine (Orange County) studio, the same studio that New World is developed at
Being developed for PC and Console
This is a full reboot and not reusing any assets or work from the Previous LOTR MMO that Amazon was working on with Tencent.
The goal is to make it the “biggest MMO possible” and to make it an MMO for non-MMO players (Mass appeal)
They want the MMO to have a lot of “Instant Rewards” to keep players engaged.
They realized with this MMO, they need to have a lot of post-launch content(an actual end game, unline NW)
✣THE LORD OF THE RINGS MMO MOST INTERESTING SPECULATIVE INFORMATION✣
In “Early Production” which I think means Pre-Production in this case
- From the Amazon Games Announcement #2
- I suspect that by “Early Production” they actually mean Pre-Production because there are no job listings past or present that I could find for this project, and the few team members I could find all started early to mid-2022 and are focused on Narrative Designer, Product Lead, Game Designer, and Art Producer Roles. No developer-specific employees that *COULD* be on this project have been found.
- The GamesIndustryBiz Interview suggested they are in the “prototyping” stages, which would also suggest Pre-Production
ANNOUNCEMENT AND INTERVIEWS
Amazon Games Announcement 1
Notes:
- Partnered with Embracer Group
- Features the stories of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings
- Rich Lawrence Orange Co. Studio Director
- Using the Next Generation of the Azoth Engine, but they plan to evolve it considerably to deliver something that feels distinct from New World
Amazon Games Announcement 2
Notes:
- Early stages of production(does this mean actual production and not pre-production?)
- Orange Co. Studio developing it
- PC and Consoles
IGN Interview
Notes:
- Not related to the current LOTRO and not reusing any assets from the canceled one in 2021
GamesIndustry.Biz Interview
Notes:
- The goal is to make it the “largest MMO out there”
- Wants to make an MMO for non-MMO players
- “Instant Rewards”
- “Everything is about instant reward, and since social media and internet and so on, that instant reward thing is so important,” says Hartmann. “It has to be faster and faster.
- “If you just rely on people figuring out the mechanics very fast because it’s very similar to what they had before, that’s great, but it’s all about accessibility and very early having rewards so they feel progress. And then slowly letting them get better and better, and basically giving them an option they can start at a different pace, and not getting frustrated. That’s what’s important.
- They realize they need for content at launch than what NW had:
- “People just literally burn through content at an incredible speed,” he says. “We could not keep up with developing new content. At the beginning we said, ‘We obviously need post-launch content,’ we looked at the timeframe in our world where we have a lot of experienced people saying two or three months, but people burned through what we expected to take them two or three months in just one month.
- May not be COMPLETELY true to the story, in order to make the best possible game.
- “I definitely want to put the game first to make sure it’s a great game, because as I said, we want people to play for ten years, and it’s not going to help me if someone is saying, ‘That’s a perfect representation of the book in a game.’ If you’re really into that, read the book. Read it another five times. Otherwise, if it’s a game, a game has to do with playing, and they have to be playful, so there needs to be a little bit of being able to bend the rules to make it a great game.”
- Prototyping Mode, suggests Pre-Production:
- There’s no word on a release date for Amazon’s The Lord of the Rings game, but with the team now in prototyping mode and Hartmann determined to create an MMO that lasts for over a decade, he’s in no rush to bring something to market.
Previous Project Ending Announcement
- The project was cancelled in April 2021 due to a dispute with Tencent over contract terms.
JOB POSTINGS
Nothing that I could find, yet…
TEAM
SEE THE TEAM PAGE HERE