Christoph Hartmann, Amazon Games' boss, spoke with IGN about the company's state and its future. He talked about the Lord of the Rings MMO in particular and the undertaking of an iconic franchise such as Tomb Raider.
Amazon Games is predominantly known for MMORPGs, such as Lost Ark, Throne & Liberty, and Blue Protocol. However, with some of their recent acquisitions, they are hoping to step out of the MMO limelight and try their hand at making something new. Their most recent announcement happened just days ago at Gamescom 2024, with a stark change in genre from their previous games. This announcement was about the wacky co-op action game King of Meat, which is quite a shock compared to Amazon Games' previous published titles.
"As you know, we have Tomb Raider and others, so that's obviously happening regardless. But I think what's even more important is that we are taking bets on new ideas and new developers, which is very few... Well, we are not yet an established publisher, but we're still a big company." Amazon Games has kept relatively quiet about their plans throughout 2024, but they have over ten projects currently in development, with talks of getting their hands on a couple more, too. This, of course, includes Tomb Raider, as well as a new driving game made by the developers of Forza Horizon.
Although they are keen to expand their catalog, the hooks of MMOs seem deep into Amazon Games. While working on the King of Meat and the Tomb Raider franchise, they also have the Lord of the Rings MMO to attend to. Originally, in July of this year, they said that the Lord of the Rings MMO isn't "too far away. " However, the script has now been flipped to say that it's still early days for the game.
"We're still trying to find the hook, find that idea of what it is because we don't just want to go and do the same thing over," said Hartman. There have been multiple Lord of the Rings games in recent years, such as Gollum, The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria, and, additionally, the upcoming game, Tales of the Shire. So far, these games haven't been particularly well-received by the audience, with Gollum being particularly controversial.
A Lord of the Rings MMO has plenty of potential, as it gives players room to add to the story and craft their world within the franchise, but it also has the potential to go wrong.
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