A massive MMORPG (that's massively multiplayer online role-playing game) based on The Lord Of The Rings is set to release in 2022, according to a new report. Game License Agreement documents surrounding the upcoming project have been released online, and have shed new light on the game, which was first rumoured to be in development at Amazon late last year before finally being confirmed a few months later.
In a statement at the time, Amazon Game Studios VP Christoph Hartmann said: "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."
The project has been fairly quite since then, but it seems as if the developers have been hard at work making sure that the MMO will be every bit as authentic as we'd hope it would be.
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As spotted by GamesRadar, Resetera user 'sNtd' shared some new information about the MMO. It reads: "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."
I'm sure you can probably imagine that the vast majority of these documents are full of incredible dull legalese, but there are some tidbits to be gleaned. Notably, the document seems to confirm that the "first draft" of the game world's lore and narrative is scheduled to be finished by January 11, 2021 - just a couple of months away.
There's also talk of a closed beta release in September 2022, and an open beta at some point after that. An Xbox One and PS4 release also seem to be on the cards for the MMO, which is especially interesting given how the Xbox Series X and PS5 will be well into the swing of things by that point. These plans could change between now and then, of course.
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Finally, the documentation states that the game's content will be finished an playable six months PC open beta kicks off, and a commercial launch window is planned for another six months after that.
Topics: News, Warner Bros., Amazon, The Lord Of The Rings