Fans of The Lord of the Rings will be delighted. On Monday, the video game platform Amazon Games announced that it had signed an agreement with Middle-earth Enterprises, which owns the rights to the products derived from the saga, to develop a game based on the cult works of J.R.R. Tolkien. "Giving players a new vision of The Lord of the Rings has long been a wish of our team, and we are honored and grateful that Middle-earth Enterprises trusts us to bring this iconic world to life," Amazon Games Vice President Christoph Hartmann said in a statement.


"We are committed to bringing high-quality games to players, whether for original franchises, or existing and beloved franchises like The Lord of the Rings," he said. Amazon Games' future production, which is "in the early stages of production," will be a massively multiplayer online adventure game (MMO) "set in an open-world and persistent in Middle-earth, taking up the beloved stories of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings," the statement said. The game will be released on PC and console. "Additional details, such as the launch date, will be shared at a later date."


We're excited to announce our collaboration with Embracer Group and Middle-earth Enterprises for our upcoming MMORPG based on the iconic The Lord of the Rings property!

Learn more here!
⚔️ https://t.co/q9IzMSuuLp pic.twitter.com/kpsIa6xj9U

— Amazon Games (@amazongames) May 15, 2023

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"Delighting players around the world"


"The world of Middle-earth continues to be fertile ground for creators," said Lee Guinchard, CEO of Embracer Freemode, a subsidiary of Swedish video game publisher Embracer, which owns Middle-earth Enterprises. "We have a clear ambition to create the highest quality entertainment products for this license. We are taking all necessary steps to deliver an MMO that will do justice to the incredibly rich universe of Middle-earth, to delight players around the world."


Amazon is developing in parallel its series adapted from the world of Tolkien, on which the group has bet more than a billion dollars for at least five seasons, the first of which was released on its streaming platform Prime Video in 2022. The American giant also wants to make a name for itself in the video game sector. Amazon Games has already developed other games, such as New World or Lost Ark, and reached an agreement in December 2022 to produce the next installment in the famous Tomb Raider franchise.



In addition to game publishing, Amazon has been active in this industry for several years. It bought the Twitch streaming platform in 2014 and launched Luna, a subscription-based online video game platform, in 2020.

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