The online role-playing game “Lord of the Rings” announced by Amazon in 2019 became loud Bloomberg set. The reason is a dispute in contract negotiations with the Chinese Internet giant Tencent, which was involved in the development of the game, in which no agreement was reached.
No agreement with Tencent
Amazon Games originally developed the free-to-play online role-playing game from the Heart of the Rings universe with China-based Leyou Technologies Holdings Limited. In 2014 Leyou Technologies bought or took over stakes in various game developers – including Splash Damage, which was involved in Gears of War titles and developed multiplayer maps for Doom 3, and Digital Extremes, which was involved in the development of the Unreal series .
Leyou Technologies was finally acquired by Tencent for $ 1.5 billion in late 2020. An Amazon spokesman confirmed according to Bloombergthat from this point on it was not possible to agree on any conditions for continuing work on the title. Love Lord of the Rings and be disappointed not to be able to publish the game. The Amazon team that worked on the game will be moved to other projects.
Amazon Game Studio keeps having problems
Amazon founded the Amazon Game Studio in 2012. In contrast to the online trading platform with its Prime offshoots and the live streaming platform Twitch, the Amazon Game Studio had to take some setbacks in the past. In addition to the discontinuation of the Lord of the Rings game, the free-to-play multiplayer shooter “Crucible” was discontinued in November 2020 after only four months. The online role-playing game “New World” announced for May 26, 2020 has already been postponed several times and is now announced for August 31, 2021.
The reason for the postponement of “New World” is said to have been the feedback from players after the alpha version released in 2019, according to which Amazon Games wants to turn the entire concept of the online role-playing game upside down and make the game darker. Amazon uses its own 3D engine Lumberyard for “New World”.
(bme)
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