The game will be an open world MMO set in Middle-earth, centered around the ever-popular books The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings trilogy. The MMO is in early development at Amazon Games Orange County, creators of the popular open world MMO New World. Amazon Games will publish the title worldwide for PC and consoles. More details, such as the release date, will be announced at a later date.

"It'simportant to us to deliver high-quality titles to gamers, whether they're original IPs or games based on longtime crowd favorites like The Lord of the Rings," says Christoph Hartmann, VP of Amazon Games. "It has long been a goal of our team to bring gamers a fresh interpretation of The Lord of the Rings, and we are honored and grateful that Middle-earth Enterprises has entrusted us with their iconicworld. We are also excited to expand our collaboration with Embracer Group following our Tomb Raider deal last year, as they have proven to be an excellent collaboration partner."

"The world of Middle-earth continues to prove an inexhaustible source of creative talent. Amazon Games have a passion for creating immersive, immersive worlds as well as expertise in publishing games for a global audience," said Lee Guinchard, CEO of Freemode. "Our clear ambition is to create the best possible entertainment products for this IP, whether that means using internal resources or teaming up with the best partners the industry has to offer to complement our capabilities. We're putting every effort into bringing an MMO to life that does justice to the expansive universe of Middle-earth and that will delight players around the world."

The as-yet-unnamed The Lord of the Rings game continues Amazon Games' growing momentum in games development and publishing following the successes of the internally developed MMO New World and the Smilegate RPG-developed action MMO Lost Ark. Both titles dominated the Steam and Twitch charts upon release and continue to cultivate strong communities. Amazon Games is also working with NCSOFT on Throne and Liberty, Bandai Namco Online on Blue Protocol, Crystal Dynamics on the next big Tomb Raider, and Glowmade and Disruptive Games on unannounced titles.