Amazon Games has announced a new MMO set in the world of Lord of the Rings. It will be released for PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X. There has been an MMORPG in the world of Tolkien since 2007 with “Lord of the Rings Online”. If it’s up to the head of Amazon Games, that’s no competition.
This is the situation:
Lord of the Rings Online: The next expansion is here, 14 YEARS after release! See the launch trailer again here
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“Like color film compared to black and white”
This is what Amazon says about the MMORPG: In an interview with Gamesindustry.biz, the German head of Amazon, Christoph Hartmann, is asked about the current MMORPG about Lord of the Rings
He is asked if this isn’t a disadvantage for Amazon’s new MMO when the old one is already 16 years ahead. However, Hartmann believes that Lord of the Rings Online has no disadvantages whatsoever for his game.
He says comparing the two titles is like comparing black-and-white era films to color films:
First off, I have a lot of respect for keeping it going for so long. They don’t have a huge fan base, but they do have a very devoted one. But if you just look at the tech, where we are now, where we’re going to be in a couple of years [und dem Stand von Herr der Ringe Online] – there are simply worlds in between. It’s a bit of an exaggeration to say it’s like black and white films have switched to color films, but that’s the perspective I want to take. It’s just a completely different world.
“People will leave and come to us”
This is what Hartmann says about what will happen to the old MMORPG: The manager says he believes the two games could theoretically coexist:
But the most likely scenario is that people will just switch to us because the other is an old game. It’s not a bad game, but the industry is moving on at a certain point and there’s a long time between their release and ours.
Amazon Games boss does not use the word “MMORPG” in his mouth
Will the new game be an MMORPG? Gamesindustry points out that the new Lord of the Rings game is only spoken of as an “MMO” and not as an MMORPG.
Hartmann doesn’t say the word “MMORPG”. Apparently he’s planning something else, not thinking in the strict genre categories of the past. Other developers such as ESO boss Matt Firor had also rejected the term “MMORPG” for their game, The Elder Scrolls Online, saying that it was a term from 2005 (WoW), today the games are different.
Hartmann agrees: Compared to the games of the past, everything has to happen “faster and faster” today.
People would need to grasp the mechanics quickly and get their first rewards quickly. It’s all about easy accessibility and early rewards. After that, you could slowly let people get better.
Hartmann apparently wants to do an MMO primarily because he sees so much potential in this area:
Battle Royale, like Fortnite or PUBG, have been hot topics for a long time, everyone wanted to do one. You were the hot thing. But I think: MMOs are pretty cool too, but they don’t get the same attention in the last few years as they did 10 years ago. That’s why we’re strategically there.
Even if Hartmann never mentions the word “MMORPG”, he emphasizes in the interview that Amazon’s Lord of the Rings game should last for 10 years and only be released when it’s finished. He does not want to commit to a release date or any period of time.
More about Christoph Hartmann and his statements about the new MMO Lord of the Rings:
Son of a dentist from Rosenheim is the boss of Amazon Games: “I want Lord of the Rings to be the biggest MMO”