Amazon remains committed to developing a Lord of the Rings game, despite recent reports of its MMO project being cancelled.
Speaking to IGN, Amazon’s head of games Jeff Gattis stated that “nothing’s been cancelled per se” and that the company is “still looking at a number of [concepts].”
“I looked at a project a couple of weeks ago that I thought was quite compelling that perhaps we can go forward with,” said Gattis.
“But evaluating different concepts is trying to figure out what game we want to make, what’s the right one for our audience, what’s the right one for the broader audience.”
Last month, Gattis declined to confirm or deny reports of the Lord of the Rings MMO cancellation.
He stated that Amazon is developing a “new game experience” in the Lord of the Rings universe, is “working closely with Middle-earth Enterprises,” and remains “excited about the IP.”
Regarding Amazon’s broader portfolio, which includes Tomb Raider and James Bond, Gattis noted that the company is prioritizing development of established IP over creating original properties.
“There are a lot of things that we’re investing in, which I call more innovative game mechanics,” he explained.
“There might be IP that comes out of that. We’ve got a ton of things in development right now. We almost just wish this stuff could come faster so that I could have proof points to tell you instead of saying, ‘Trust me, we’ve got stuff coming.’ But all in due time.”
Gattis also affirmed Amazon’s commitment to the AAA gaming market.
“That’s part of the assessment we’ve done over the past year, which is trying to understand what content makes sense,” he said.
“Broad appeal IP fits in with Prime Video. What we don’t want to necessarily do is AAA things that don’t have any real reason to exist in Amazon.”
