Next big Lord of the Rings console videogame in the works at Amazon

With a live-action Lord of the Rings TV series in the works at Amazon, it was only a matter of time before the videogame space again tackled the realm of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth. Today makes it official.

Amazon Game Studios revealed the development of the next big Lord of the Rings videogame, described as “a free-to-play massively multiplayer online” release for PC and consoles.

There are few specifics available at this time, but we know the game will be set in Middle-earth and “give fans around the globe a new, immersive game experience for epic exploration of the vast world of Tolkien.” It won’t, however, be directly connected to Amazon’s The Lord of the Rings TV series, which is set during the Second Age, thousands of years before the events of Tolkien’s The Fellowship of the Ring.

A release date has not been set.

Numerous Middle-earth videogames predate this new one, including Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar, and console games based on Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings movie trilogy. Earlier this year, Daedalic Entertainment announced development on its own game, The Lord of the Rings: Gollum.

This next LOTR game represents a collaboration between Amazon’s game technology and MMO developers with Leyou Technologies Holdings Limited (the game developer/publisher behind Warframe) and Middle-earth Enterprises (which licenses entertainment based on The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit).

“We believe our combined resources and expertise will result in a beautiful and compelling game that customers will love and play for years to come,” Leyou CEO Alex Xu said in a statement.

“We’re committed to bringing customers games of the highest quality, both with our own original IP as well as beloved cultural pillars like The Lord of the Rings,” added Christoph Hartmann, vice president of Amazon Game Studios. “Tolkien’s Middle-earth is one of the richest fictional worlds in history, and it gives our team of experienced MMO developers — from the same studio developing New World — tremendous opportunity to play and create. We have a strong leadership team in place to helm this new project, and we’re actively growing our team to help build this incredible experience.”

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