So, Why did The Lord of the Rings MMO Get Cancelled?
New insight has been provided for the canned Lord of the Rings MMO after it was well in the mid stages of its development. The company confirmed back in last April that the free-to-play console and PC title which was in co-development along with Athlon Games, a US-based subsidiary of Hong Kong-based Leyou Technologies had been axed. Both of the companies tried their best to continue development and effort on the now canned Lord of the Rings MMO but unfortunately, things got dragged out way too long and both companies decided it was best to ultimately put the project under wraps. The now-canceled Lord of The Rings MMO Game was originally announced back in 2018 by Athlon Games and Middle-earth Enterprises. So we decided it’s better to not work together there. Then we tried to figure something out with both ends, but I think it just dragged on too long – Hartmann Athlon games stated back then that it was working closely with a partner developer to develop an online game that was set in the ages long before the events of The Lord of the Rings ever took place. Players would get a chance to explore the lands, interact with the people of the world and see creatures never before seen by fans of the Tolkien Universe. We’ll never know what the game would’ve held for us, but we can speculate that it could’ve either been the best interpretation of the Lord of the Rings in the form of an online MMO or just your run-of-the-mill MMO.
Future of the Lord of the Rings Games?
It was back in July 2022 that Embrace Group took a keen interest in the Lord of the Rings franchise and proceeded to initiate an acquisition contract for Middle-earth Enterprises and The Lord of the Rings series. Embracer Group probably saw a seller in desperation and swooped in to buy the franchise and enterprise at the right moment. The CEO of Embracer Group, Lars Wingefors had this to say about the acquisition. The deal will basically hand the keys to Embracer Group for “a vast intellectual property catalog and worldwide rights to motion pictures, video games, board games, merchandising, theme parks and stage productions relating to the iconic fantasy literary works The Lord of the Rings trilogy and The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien” It is encouraging that our group has become a natural and preferred buyer of creative, growing, and profitable companies within Gaming and Entertainment. – Lars Wingefors, CEO of Embracer Group Embracer Group will be given exclusive access to develop video-games merchandise, theme parks, and motion pictures for The Lord of the Rings and Middle Earth Franchise, but there’s one thing missing in the deal and it’s the rights to the works of J.R.R Tolkien. The rights to the books and any publishing deal with them remain with Tolkien Estate and HarperCollins. Whether it be The Unfinished Tales of Numenor, The Silmarillion, and Middle Earth, all of them will stay in the hands of the Estate and HarperCollins but Embracer Group doesn’t want to give up all that easily. The Group stated that it’s interested in the publishing deals too and for that very reason, a clause was inserted that allowed Embracer Group matching rights to these works. If anyone makes an offer to the Tolkien Estate that it can’t refuse, Embracer Group has the leeway to match any of the offers made to the owners of the publications. As for what Tencent is up to these days, things seem to be going well for the company. The Chinese conglomerate recently entered into a major strategic partnership this week with Ubisoft. It will allow Tencent to acquire a stake in Ubisoft’s family holding which will potentially allow Tencent to doubt its stake in the Assassin’s Creed publisher. This deal also includes the developmental heads-up of mobile tiles for several of Ubisoft’s major franchises too. Although the Lord of the Rings MMO is canceled, things still seem pretty bright for the future as Private Divison had entered into a contract with Weta Workshop for the development of an untitled Lord of the Rings Game set in the Middle-earth Universe. The Lord of the Rings IP is home to so many remarkable stories, and no entity is better equipped than the team at Wētā Workshop to create a distinctive, new Middle-earth gaming experience. – Head of Private Division Michael Worosz.
