Amazon Games revealed last year that the in-development MMO set in the universe of The Lord of the Rings had been canceled and that the team “was unable to secure the conditions to move forward with the title at this time.” This disappointed many fans.
This followed reports that the cancellation was due to contract negotiations related to the franchise following Tencent’s acquisition of Leyou Technologies Holdings Ltd. , a company that Amazon Games has been working with on the game. However, Christoph Hartmann, president of Amazon Games, recently shed some light on this chain of events in a new interview with GameSpot, noting that things became “extremely complicated” after the acquisition.
“We made a deal with Hong Kong-based Leyou; I think it was great to work with them,” Hartmann told the newspaper. “But they were later sold to Tencent and it became very complicated.”
The complication was a special clause written in the contract of the Lord of the Rings license holder, Middle-earth Enterprises, that allowed him to terminate a rights deal if one of his partners – in this case, Leyou – was acquired. Middle-earth Enterprises did just that after Tencent acquired Leyou last year. Amazon Games reworked its plans to include Tencent, and the two attempted to negotiate a collaboration, but Hartmann said those negotiations went on for too long and the studio eventually decided to scrap the project.
Unfortunately it happens with many games. At least we have other LOTR titles.
Source and image credit GameInformer
Filed Under: Gaming News