Amazon has quietly shelved its Lord of the Rings MMO after years of minimal progress and a post-layoff reckoning that left the project with little more than a handful of concept pieces.

The effort, announced in May 2023 with Embracer Group's Middle-earth Enterprises, spent most of its existence as a side project with one or two staffers before a late ramp-up that saw over a thousand New World developers shifted over only to face October 2025 cuts.

Amazon head of games Jeff Grattis offered the standard corporate pivot, stating the team is still pursuing a new Middle-earth experience without specifying scope, platform, or timeline.

New World maintenance continues until its scheduled 2027 shutdown, while rumors persist of unrelated Lord of the Rings efforts at Warhorse and Crystal Dynamics, none of which involve Amazon's remaining MMO talent.