Amazon has officially revealed that it is the mystery partner working alongside Athlon Games to create a Lord of the Rings (LOTR) MMO.
The entertainment industry is no stranger to the odd prequel. However, a couple of today's popular franchises are about to get prequels that predate the fantasy worlds we know and love by thousands of years. The Game of Thrones prequel that is currently being worked on is one example. It might be set in Westeros, but the show will be a far cry from the one we have become acquainted with over the past decade.
Another franchise that is about to get a prequel set thousands of years before its main storyline is Lord of the Rings. Amazon is currently working on the TV show that will be set long before Frodo journeyed to Mordor to destroy the one ring. In addition to that, Amazon has also revealed that it is working on a brand new LOTR MMO game.
As reported by The Verge, the MMO will also be set thousands of years before the original movies. However, the game will not be associated with the TV series in any way. It has been confirmed that the two are being run by different teams and are completely unrelated. Odd that two projects as similar as these, being developed by the same company, would have no connection whatsoever, but okay...
The news that a LOTR MMO was in the works was actually broken by Athlon Games last year. At that time, the developer was not at liberty to divulge who it was working with on the project. We now know that the previously unnamed partner is Amazon Game Studios. Apparently, the game will include "lands, people and creatures never seen before by fans of the Tolkien universe."
For LOTR and MMO fans wary of Amazon being the ones behind this game, it may ease your worries slightly that it has already been working on its first MMO for quite a while, New World. No, that doesn't make Amazon an MMO heavyweight per se, but at least a franchise as big as LOTR won't be its first foray into this genre. As for further details, a release date and what platforms the game will be available on have not yet been released.