Reason for Lord of the Rings MMO Cancellation Revealed by Amazon

gamerant.com:

Amazon reveals the reason why it canceled a Lord of the Rings MMO last year, stating that Tencent purchasing the planned developer led to serious complications. Amazon's Lord of the Rings MMO was announced in 2019 and, originally planned to be a free-to-play title, it would have allowed players to roam the lands of Middle-earth before any of the events featured in Tolkien's novels. From a lot of the early discussions surrounding the game, it seemed promising, but nothing concrete was ever revealed.

It was even expected that the Lord of the Rings MMO would release in 2022. But, unfortunately for many who were excited at the prospect of roaming around Middle-earth with their friends, back in April 2021 the game was canceled by Amazon. At the time, there wasn't a clear reason as to why the MMO was canceled, with the company stating only that there were some contract complications with developer Leyou Techologies. Now, some more details on those complications have been unearthed.

Lord of the Rings MMO Canceled by Amazon

It seems that Tencent's purchasing of Leyou was the primary reason why the Lord of the Rings MMO faced cancellation. Speaking with Gamespot, Amazon Games President Christoph Hartmann discussed the difficulties of working with Tencent, which were amplified when Leyou was acquired by the conglomerate. Middle-earth Enterprises, the company owning the rights to The Lord of the Rings IP at the time, had a contract clause allowing it to terminate its deal with both Amazon and Leyou if either of its partners were acquired.

This is what really brought an end to the Lord of the Rings MMO, as it meant that the project was essentially brought to an end in its current form. It would have been possible for Amazon to continue