Amazon Cancels Development of Lord of the Rings MMO

[Uskompuf]

Amazon Game Studios has cancelled the development of their Lord of the Rings game which was announced in 2019 after a contract dispute. Amazon Game Studios was jointly developing the game with Chinese company Leyou Technologies who were purchased by Tencent in December 2020 which prompted contract negotiations that could not be resolved and resulted in the cancellation of the game. Amazon has confirmed that all staff members working on the game will be reallocated and that they are disappointed they cannot release the game. This latest blow to Amazon Game Studios comes at a time when the division is already struggling with various titles announced getting delayed or cancelled.



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[RadeonProVega]

Never knew one was coming, I'm looking forward to Hogwarts Legacy RPG

 

[windwhirl]

I think I wasn't even aware Amazon had a game division...

 

[AsRock]

Meh Amazon, i would not buy it anyways. Kinda stay away from Amazon as much as possible these days.

 

[TheLostSwede]

And this is what happens when you put your trust in Chinese software developers...

 

[bug]

Yeah, well, if it was Tencent, you can imagine the game would have been yet another mtx-riddled money grabber. Good riddance.

 

[Vayra86]

I think I wasn't even aware Amazon had a game division...

They don't. They bought a box of carpenters and sell it off to studios, pray for a good outcome and that's that. Unfortunately its a rip off from another dying company called Crytek.

Amazon as a company does nothing other than manage servers. Everything else is minimum investment maximum gain. Moving data, moving boxes, moving money into Bezos' bank account.

It offers us nothing substantial and deserves a boycot like China. I hear the working conditions are frighteningly similar btw.

Meh Amazon, i would not buy it anyways. Kinda stay away from Amazon as much as possible these days.

Same. Im buying as much local as I can these days and will continue doing so. Happy to spend a bit more and not have stuff fall apart within 3 months for it.

All of these platform-based sales engines are damaging our society. Too much middle man BS, while I thought the whole purpose of internet was removing them.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

From what I heard, it wasn't the contractual issues that caused the cancellation but more like Amazon wanted the game to be made a certain way with certain features/objectives and tencent kept interfering. Injecting and working off their own ideas rather than following the demands/instructions that Amazon had given and wanted the game to be like. It wouldn't have been an Amazon game if tencent were allowed to continue making it but a tencent game.

The issues with the contract would have been one of the nails in the coffin that led to them cancelling but not the death of the game.

Id be pissed too if i asked a game studio to make me a single player racing sim but they ended making an arcade style MMO-Racing game instead because they themselves thought it would be a better game. Thats not their decision to be making.


editied to read better grammatically

 

[Turmania]

Hardware stuff ok to put it in hands of Chinese or India. But software NEVER!

 

[Vayra86]

From what I heard, it wasn't the contractual issues that caused the cancellation but more like Amazon wanted the game to be made a certain way with certain features/objectives and tencent kept interfering. Injecting and working off their own ideas rather than following the demands/instructions that Amazon had given and wanted the game to be like. It wouldn't have been an Amazon game if tencent were allowed to continue making it but a tencent game.

The issues with the contract would have been one of the nails in the coffin that led to them cancelling but not the death of the game.

Id be pissed too if i asked a game studio to make me a single player racing sim but they ended making an arcade style MMO-Racing game instead because they themselves thought it would be a better game. Thats not their decision to be making.


editied to read better grammatically

You might be giving Amazon way too much credit for being able to make better game concepts than Tencent though. It might very well objectively be better on Tencent's end. They seem to be able to fund the right gaming studios after all, if you look at what brought them to greatness. Its not just money. They've figured out the market quite well - and not just by serving MTX ridden crap.

Or, maybe Amazon's version included lots of underpaid Hobbits running errands for no real reason.

 

[64K]

Amazon has no business being in the gaming business imo

 

[Vayra86]

Hardware stuff ok to put it in hands of Chinese or India. But software NEVER!

You say that... but...

Huawei ‘may have eavesdropped on Dutch mobile network’s calls’

Chinese firm could have been monitoring calls of KPN’s 6.5m users without its knowledge, report claims

www.theguardian.com

China has been, and today was confirmed - still is - inside our core network. 3G, 4G, and soon 5G.
Gotta love our national security eh. Parliament is asking questions right now. But unscrewing this is another story entirely.

We're quite officially FUBAR

 

[FreedomEclipse]

You might be giving Amazon way too much credit for being able to make better game concepts than Tencent though. It might very well objectively be better on Tencent's end. They seem to be able to fund the right gaming studios after all, if you look at what brought them to greatness. Its not just money. They've figured out the market quite well - and not just by serving MTX ridden crap.

Or, maybe Amazon's version included lots of underpaid Hobbits running errands for no real reason.

Its the principle of the matter... especially when big money is being exchanged for services. If im paying you a few million dollars to do something that you dont do then why am i paying you to do something youre not doing?

Even if Amazons decisions/ideas are bad - you can give feedback but the moment you start second guessing the client and taking control of their project and making the game *YOU* want to make rather than what they asked for then it is you who is f**king things up.

In any case even if you do follow Amazons instructions right down to the smallest detail and the game still flops -- *ITS NOT YOUR FAULT* because you followed orders/instructions. All you need to do is do your job and do it to the best of your abilities. Make sure everything like the art work, animations, 3D modelling and other things are on point that way they cant blame you for their failures just like Anthem and the old Amazon studio that made Crucible. If management is a problem. Let management be the problem. Just do your job the best you can. None of the devs that worked on those games got the blame from corporate about it. Some devs did get hate from the community. but the community doesnt work for amazon or EA and even if they are paying customers. they have no power or right to say that you did a shitty job if you worked 24/7 and did the best that you could do.

Its not about giving amazon credit. I know their first attempt bombed. but your comment isnt right either.

 

[Steevo]

While a epic LOTR game would be great, unless they are willing to make it epic in game play, storyline, size and mods they may as well make it lego LOTR, which has already been done.

 

[Vayra86]

Its the principle of the matter... especially when big money is being exchanged for services. If im paying you a few million dollars to do something that you dont do then why am i paying you to do something youre not doing?

Even if Amazons decisions/ideas are bad - you can give feedback but the moment you start second guessing the client and taking control of their project and making the game *YOU* want to make rather than what they asked for then it is you who is f**king things up.

In any case even if you do follow Amazons instructions right down to the smallest detail and the game still flops -- *ITS NOT YOUR FAULT* because you followed orders/instructions. All you need to do is do your job and do it to the best of your abilities. Make sure everything like the art work, animations, 3D modelling and other things are on point that way they cant blame you for their failures just like Anthem and the old Amazon studio that made Crucible. If management is a problem. Let management be the problem. Just do your job the best you can. None of the devs that worked on those games got the blame from corporate about it. Some devs did get hate from the community. but the community doesnt work for amazon or EA and even if they are paying customers. they have no power or right to say that you did a shitty job if you worked 24/7 and did the best that you could do.

Its not about giving amazon credit. I know their first attempt bombed. but your comment isnt right either.

Of course. I jest - at least up to the point that Amazon should get what it asked for. At the same time that underlines the bit Idid want to point out: Amazon is a company that produces or creates absolutely nothing. It moves bits and packages. And its taking an unfathomably large piece of pie for it. One might wonder what exactly did Amazon ask the studio to do. Was there even any artistic or conceptual vision involved? And if absent, why would a team of creative minds not bring ideas in? Its likely a lot of gray area is involved here too. And accompanying ego of people being people, too, when things are not set in stone.

All they did bring to gaming are a bunxh of failed money pits. Its not like they are investing smart, or right, or that they have an engine that somehow provides incentive for developers like say, Unreal Engine or Unity.

What does Amazon add to any market, you might even wonder, except (blind?) capital and playing with workers rights and percentages and data analytics to make it all fit?

 

[Renald]

While a epic LOTR game would be great, unless they are willing to make it epic in game play, storyline, size and mods they may as well make it lego LOTR, which has already been done.

There's already a great MMO (LOTRO), which became free to play some years ago. 3D and animations kinda sucks, but the gameplay, textures, lore are really good.

Now we have to wait for another decade ...

 

[RadeonProVega]

Meh Amazon, i would not buy it anyways. Kinda stay away from Amazon as much as possible these days.

I use to work at amazon and never shopped at their website. Ebay for life.

 

[voltage]

Good, they would have ruined the franchise name anyway.

 

[R-T-B]

And its taking an unfathomably large piece of pie for it.

I dunno really. Two day shipping on most everything used to be a pipe dream... also from what I understand part of amazons problem is razor thin margins they make up for with poor labor practices and sheer quantity. None of that sounds like a "big piece of the pie" to me.

Hardware stuff ok to put it in hands of Chinese or India. But software NEVER!

Honestly this is silly, as software is far easier to audit than hardware.

 

[Vayra86]

I dunno really. Two day shipping on most everything used to be a pipe dream... also from what I understand part of amazons problem is razor thin margins they make up for with poor labor practices and sheer quantity. None of that sounds like a "big piece of the pie" to me.


Honestly this is silly, as software is far easier to audit than hardware.

Bezos is the richest man on earth. Razor thin margins?

The money and the power comes from forcing the market to move in its direction, it took the juice out of retail business at large and funnels it into Bezos' bank account. Of course there is also the huge AWS division. Razor thin margins there? I doubt it...

The erosion of worker's rights matters and so does the erosion of everything that is local. Much like how algorithms are starting to control our lives and choices, this too is an inevitable road to nothingness and the absolute bottom of ethical or sane behaviour. Internet + commerce + data. Its a cocktail that will always taste the same and gets utterly boring very fast and it gains us nothing except 'fast, cheap, easy'. The same 15 minute dopamine shots the same parents whine about with their Fortnite playing-kid Click buy, must have now. Almost every recent web development has been aimed at making transactions fast and easy, removing all consideration and pause from it. After all, if you stop to think for a moment you might realize you've been funnelled into a 'buy more save more' idiocy much like how Nvidia sells its cards now Web design has been focused more and more on commerce and many times we don't even realize it. Even the way cookie walls work, is rife with filthy psychological trickery.

And a lot of tech companies got way too big over it and the ultra slow common sense development of governments in that regard. They were sleeping and they still are, and power gets siphoned away from them and into the hands of corporate. The amount of control that is currently with Amazon over pricing and analytics of the market, is unhealthy. The same goes for search wrt Google, or journalism wrt Facebook. And since we're invested, the knee jerk response is to let them control even more.

It happens everywhere, even China can't ignore it, as it now swings the banhammer at a lot of the biggest fish in the China tech pond, like Mr. Ma's Aliexpress.

 

[Deleted member 205776]

This is the first time I hear of this. Lmao.

Fuck Amazon anyway, prime example of workers being enslaved and having no rights, while Bezos sits like a parasite at the top.

I feel good when I'm able to get my $300 RAM kits for free from Amazon since they for some reason mark every small package as "lost" and I can request a refund.

 

[64K]

Walmart paved the way for Amazon. They sold their merchandise for dirt cheap and pushed small businesses into bankruptcy. They were able to do this because they set a really low price buying from manufacturers and if the manufacturer wouldn't agree then Walmart simply didn't carry their product.

 

[Vayra86]

Walmart paved the way for Amazon. They sold their merchandise for dirt cheap and pushed small businesses into bankruptcy. They were able to do this because they set a really low price buying from manufacturers and if the manufacturer wouldn't agree then Walmart simply didn't carry their product.

Possibly, but I think the race to the bottom was started the moment companies started outsourcing labor and production.

And we're now going to pay the price. Markets are already flooded with ultra cheap, possibly cancerous plastics in a vast portion of products that even end up in the hands of children. Batteries/packs are hit/miss, maybe yours might explode one day. Correctness of advertising is shaky at best, 'product may vary' is norm, not exception. The list goes on.

Is this all gone when you do things more locally? Of course not. But you CAN exercise control over it, which is completely absent now, except in the form of blanket trade tariffs that only serve to upsell the same shitty product for more.

In the end it comes down to regulation and limitation. You can't have unlimited everything, and less is often more. Slower is possibly better than faster, too. This aligns with the overall idea that our societies are moving too fast for our own good these days.

The simple fact that I can order something stupid in the US or China and get it for less than I do ordering it next 'door' in Germany is a sign things are terribly wrong. Something's gotta give.

 

[R-T-B]

Bezos is the richest man on earth. Razor thin margins?

Yep. 1% of pretty much the majority of online purchases still amounts to a metric button, who'da thunk it.

Bezos operating model is no mystery, a lot of studies have been done on him and how he got rich on small margins. I'm not excusing amazons near monopoly status mind, it's every bit as harmful as you think. But the razor thin margins helps to explain the poor treatment of workers, and cannot be ignored.

 

[Vayra86]

Yep. 1% of pretty much the majority of online purchases still amounts to a metric button, who'da thunk it.

Bezos operating model is no mystery, a lot of studies have been done on him and how he got rich on small margins. I'm not excusing amazons near monopoly status mind, it's every bit as harmful as you think. But the razor thin margins helps to explain the poor treatment of workers, and cannot be ignored.

Every company has its silver bullets in commercial offerings. I work for insurance companies in the Netherlands. That's a tight market, trust me. Margin of 3% across a whole combined portfolio is already pretty neat to have, and many companies don't have it. They work with less and a big part of what they're selling is in fact generating loss. Its the presence of compensating other stuff that keeps it all afloat.

Still I understand your point. The sheer scale of things makes it all work.