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1490160cookie-checkAmazon Teams Up With Athlon Games To Make A Free-To-Play Lord Of The Rings MMO
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2019/07

Amazon Teams Up With Athlon Games To Make A Free-To-Play Lord Of The Rings MMO

The last AAA game that we received based on J. R. R. Tolkien’s legendarium is Warner Bros. Interactive and Monolith’s Middle-Earth: Shadow of War, and we all know how that went down. Well, it looks like Amazon Game Studios and Athlon Games will team up to make a new MMO game set in Tolkien’s grand realm that will be free-to-play.

If Middle-Earth: Shadow of War managed to make the news due to maximizing shekel profits when it came to its microtransaction system, then expect Amazon Game Studios and Leyou Technologies’ publishing label, Athlon Games, to go all out since the forthcoming title is a free-to-play MMO.

Although little info on this project is out in the wild, and the work on this Lord of the Rings licensed title is wrapped up in secrets, we do know that Amazon Game Studios’ New World team will be developing the game and teams from Seattle, Irvine, and San Diego are going to help too.

We also learn that the free-to-play MMO is going to hit PC and home consoles. Although it’s unclear what systems it will land on at this moment and whether the PS4 and Xbox One are in the equation given that next-gen devices are underway, but time will tell.

The real question that remains unanswered is, will this free-to-play MMO debut on Steam or the Epic Games Store?

While we wait for that answer, this Lord of the Rings game has developers who worked on other MMO-like titles such as Destiny, Everquest, Planetside, Defiance, Rift, and World of Warcraft. In other words, in-game purchases will be in this game like there’s no tomorrow.

And lastly, publication site gamesindustry.biz reports that last month, Amazon Game Studios laid off dozens of workers and canceled multiple unannounced projects to prioritize New World, Crucible, and the Lord of the Rings title in question. So don’t be surprised if this game (that has no release date) might release glitchy, half-finished and loaded with MTX features across PC and home consoles.

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