Amazon’s Lord of the Rings MMO canceled after layoffs as former developer laments ‘Y’all would have loved it'

In unfortunate news for J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth series and MMO fans, Amazon Games’ Lord of the Rings MMO has been quietly canceled after layoffs hit the company’s gaming sector.

The cancellation has been confirmed via a now-deleted LinkedIn post (spotted by Rock Paper Shotgun) by former Amazon Games senior gameplay engineer Ashleigh Amrine. Ashleigh, who had been with the studio for over nine years, detailed in the LinkedIn post:

This morning I was part of the layoffs at Amazon Games, alongside my incredibly talented peers on New World and our fledgling Lord of the Rings game (y’all would have loved it). It’s always tough to see such a strong team go through something like this. I’ve been lucky to work with some of the most skilled, creative, and kind developers I’ve met there.

Amazon announced massive corporate layoffs, which hit 14,000 staff members across the company. It’s reported that more employees will be laid off from its 350,000 workforce. Amid the layoffs, Amazon Games’ crew was hit the hardest, with an “undisclosed” number of cuts across its studios in San Diego and Irvine, as well as the central publishing team.

The Vice President of Amazon Games confirmed the layoffs in an announcement, stating, “We have made the difficult decision to halt a significant amount of our first-party AAA game development.”

The company is stepping away from the MMO space to focus on casual titles, AI projects, and its cloud gaming platform, Luna. This is the second time Amazon’s Middle-earth MMO project has been canceled. 

Earlier in 2019, Amazon announced a partnership with Leyou Technologies and Athlon Games Studio. However, the deal was scrapped amid contract discrepancies when Tencent acquired Leyou.

Later in 2023, Amazon joined hands with Embracer Group’s Middle-earth Enterprises for publishing rights for the Lord of the Rings MMO. Fans are disappointed upon hearing the loss of what could have been a new take on Tolkien’s universe. 

Layoffs have also hit Amazon’s New World as active development for the MMO has ended. New World’s Season 10: Nighthaven was the final major content update. Amazon announced that it would keep New World servers online through 2026 and give players 6 months' notice before the servers are sunset.