Amazon’s clash with Tencent killed its Lord of the Rings video game after the Chinese tech giant acquired Leyou
- Amazon and Tencent failed to agree to terms to keep developing a highly anticipated Lord of the Rings MMORPG
- Leyou, Amazon’s partner for the game, was acquired by Tencent in December for US$1.3 billion
A dispute between Tencent Holdings and Amazon led the American e-commerce giant to cancel its highly anticipated Lord of the Rings video game after its partner was acquired by the Chinese social media and gaming conglomerate.
Four months after Tencent, the world’s largest video game company by revenue, shelled out HK$10.25 billion (US$1.3 billion) for Leyou Technologies Holdings, the latter is exiting the development of a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) based on the hit fantasy book and film series The Lord of the Rings. Leyou was producing the game with Amazon, which is also producing an upcoming television show based on the series for its streaming service, and was cancelled over disputed terms with Leyou’s new owner, people familiar with the matter said.
“Following Leyou’s recent acquisition by Tencent, we have been unable to secure terms to proceed with this title at this time,” Amazon told Reuters in a statement on Saturday.
Serkan Toto, chief executive of game industry consultancy Kantan Games, said that the decision to spike the game is likely costly for both companies. “It takes a lot for such scaled gaming companies to cancel projects of this size,” he said.
Tencent and Leyou declined to comment.
Amazon and Leyou, whose titles include the shooting games Warframe and Dirty Bomb, announced in 2019 that they were working on a new Lord of the Rings game for PC and consoles. In a statement announcing the collaboration, Amazon promised to “give fans around the globe a new, immersive game experience for epic exploration of the vast world of Tolkien”.