Lord of the Rings MMO release documents suggest a 2022 release

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Amazon seem to be heading the project

Lord of the Rings
(Image credit: New Line Cinema)

Detailed Game License Agreement documents surrounding the Lord of the Rings MMO have been released online.

This comes from a Resetera post where user ‘sNtd’ shared the new information about the rumoured MMO. They said, “As part of the acquisition of Leyou by Tencent (pending shareholder approval) a bunch of legal documents were released for inspection (you can find all of them here) including Leyou's original Game License Agreement for the Lord of the Rings game with Middle-earth Enterprises (and an amendment) and the co-development and co-operation agreement with Amazon.” 

Included in the amendment documents is a production schedule detailing the planning of the MMO. The document indicates that the first draft of the complete game lore and narrative is expected to be completed by January 11, 2021. 

Even more interesting is that there is information about a closed beta release for September 2022 and an open beta. Also listed in the schedule is an Xbox One and PS4 release, with content complete and playable 6 months after the start of PC open beta, and a commercial launch window 12 months after the start of PC open beta. 

Amazon has yet to confirm that they are developing a Lord of the Rings MMO, but the latest documents have us very excited at the prospect. 

There have been plenty of Lord of the Rings IP in recent years, including Monolith Production’s Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor and Middle-earth: Shadow of War. The next game to be set in JRR Tolkien’s fantasy world is Daedalic Entertainment’s The Lord of the Rings: Gollum which is expected to launch in 2021.

For more on Middle-earth, here’s why Daedalic think Gollum is such an interesting hero.

Demi Williams
Freelance Writer

Demi is a freelance video games journalist with a particular love for Final Fantasy. She's written for GamesRadar, NME, TheGamer, and Gamespot in recent years.