In a surprising announcement yesterday, Amazon announced they were back working on an MMO (massively multiplayer online) game based on The Lord of the Rings (LOTR). The game is still in its early stages of production and to launch for consoles and PC on a date yet to be determined. Even though it’s great news for fantasy MMO fans, fans of the LOTR franchise remain sceptical that the game will live up to its world.

CHECK OUT THE ORIGINAL ANNOUNCEMENT

There are several reasons why fans are concerned about Amazon Game Studios’ attempts to make The Lord of the Rings into an MMO form: fears over how the source material is handled, the game’s performance, and especially New World’s not so rave reviews. It seems like this may put Amazon Games in a tight situation as the case with New World has been pointed out by many on social platforms.

A Twitter user by the name of Scott, an Unreal Engine developer commented, “Fool me once and all…”.

*stares at new world*

I dunno… we've been down this road before… fool me once and all…

— Scott (@Dorizzdt) May 16, 2023

As mentioned during the Amazon Games Twitter announcement, the makers of New World, Amazon Games Orange County will be in charge of the game’s development, which made fans wary of how it will turn out;

"The game is in early stages of production, with Amazon Games Orange County—makers of the popular open-world MMO game New World—leading development."

Well that doesn't sound good

— Michael Loda (@MichaelLoda) May 15, 2023

On the other hand, some users provide advice on how to improve from the previous MMO, making the upcoming game much more interesting for fans of LOTR and MMO alike.

Please take your time and do it right, and get real gamers to do the testing. It would be nice to have well designed, out of the box classes with decent skill trees that allow players to play more than one way.

— gamez With sully (@gamezWithSully) May 15, 2023

However, that does not mean all fans are pessimistic. There are some players who will look forward to exploring Middle-earth in an MMO with a more modern user interface than Lord of the Rings Online, which was launched all the way back in 2007. It’s not surprising that Amazon wants to introduce a new game. Since the game is still in its early stages, they have plenty of time to make things right.

What’s your thought on the Amazon Games’ announcement? Would you try out The Lord of the Rings open-world game? Let us know in the comments below.