Amazon's "still trying to find the hook" for its Lord of the Rings MMO

Amazon's latest crack at a Lord of the Rings MMO still needs to find its "hook".

That's coming from Amazon Games boss Christoph Hartmann, who in conversation with IGN said the team doesn't "just want to go and do the same thing over" with its Middle-earth game.

"While it's tempting sometimes with an existing IP, that's not the point of doing it. You've got to find a fresh twist, and we're still, I think, in that period where we really want to find out what could be the hook, what could be the thing which is different to all the other games out there," Hartmann said. "So it's a little bit early."

Amazon first revealed its plans for this Lord of the Rings MMO last year, as part of a deal with Embracer. The upcoming game was announced to be in development with its in-house studio behind New World, for PC and consoles. At this time, Hartmann said this MMO would offer players a "fresh take" on The Lord of the Rings, and was "in early stages of production".

This isn't Amazon's first bash at a Lord of the Rings MMO. The company cancelled an earlier attempt after the project - initially announced in 2019 - became too "complicated". That particular Lord of the Rings project was set to be developed by a Hong Kong based company that was later acquired by publisher Tencent.

Amazon's upcoming Lord of the Rings MMO isn't, of course, the only Lord of the Rings MMO out there. We also have an existing and well-established MMO in The Lord of the Rings Online from Standing Stone Games. In January, Standing Stone revealed a rather generous 2024 roadmap for the MMO, which is now into its seventeenth year.

Hartmann previously said Amazon's upcoming MMO will be "worlds apart" from Lord of the Rings Online in terms of the technology available now.

"It's a little exaggeration if I say it's going to be like black and white movies to colour, but that's the approach I want to take. It's just a completely different world," the exec stated last year.