Amazon "Still Trying To Find The Hook" For LOTR MMO

The team working on Amazon's Lord of the Rings MMO is "still trying to find the hook" for what the game will be, according to comments Amazon Games CEO Christoph Hartmann made in a recent interview.

Amazon Games announced it would make a new Lord of the Rings MMO last year in a deal with the Embracer Group. The announcement followed a previous deal between Amazon and Chinese company Leyou to make an MMO out of J.R.R Tolkein's signature work. Leyou was later acquired by Tencent and the project was canceled, only for the rights to later revert back to Middle-Earth Enterprises and ultimately find a home with the Embracer Group.

While the game was announced last year, Hartmann in an new interview with IGN said the game is still in early development. As such, the team is still trying to find an angle to make the project stand out from what's come before.

"We're still trying to find the hook, find that idea of what it is because we don't just want to go and do the same thing over," Hartmann said. "While it's tempting sometimes with an existing IP, that's not the point of doing it."

Hartmann continued by saying the team needs to find a "fresh twist" to make it "different to all the other games out there."

His comments about trying to stand out and not repeating what's already been done makes sense considering there is currently a long-running Lord of the Rings MMO, 2007's The Lord of the Rings Online, on the market that still receives new content and updates.

Amazon Games has made a name for itself in the MMO space in recent years, having released New World in 2021 (soon to be re-released on consoles and PC as New World: Aeternum). It has also published and localized Korean MMOs like Lost Ark and the upcoming Throne and Liberty for Western audiences.

In the same interview, Hartmann called developing MMOs "tough," as they are expensive both to maintain and to continually develop new content for in a way that satisfies players, calling MMO players "a very dedicated audience" that "plays a lot of hours."

Amazon is currently "moving out of being a MMO-only publisher," Hartmann said, using the recently revealed King of Meat, which falls into the action-RPG genre, as an example. Hartmann also said he believes AI can help accelerate and improve game development, but that the technology won't "solve it all," even if it might help to fasten development times and lower costs.

This isn't the first time Hartmann has talked about the Lord of the Rings MMO. He previously said the difference between Amazon's new MMO and the currently existing LOTRO will be like going from "black and white movies to color," and that while LOTRO "isn't a bad game," players will eventually move on.

Meanwhile, Amazon's The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power show will soon debut its second season--one that will dive into Sauron's past. The Rings of Power will not be connected to Amazon's new Lord of the Rings MMO, the company has said.