Despite falling out with Tencent during its last attempt to develop a Lord of the Rings MMO, Amazon Games has decided to get back on the horse and try again. It's spawned out of a new deal with Embracer Group, which acquired Middle-earth Enterprises last year, and with it the "intellectual property catalogue and worldwide rights to motion pictures, video games, board games, merchandising, theme parks and stage productions" of the Lord of the Rings trilogy and The Hobbit.
The last attempt fell through when Leyou, which previously had the MMO rights, was acquired by Tencent in 2020. This prompted Middle-earth Enterprises to terminate the rights to the LotR licence, necessitating new terms. But Amazon and Tencent couldn't get on, so an agreement wasn't hashed out and the MMO was canned.
