One less competitor in the market as Amazon cancels its Lord of the Rings MMORPG...

[RocciaSolida]

AGS truly is cursed.
I wouldn't be surprised if New World failed one last time in August and AGS shuts down for good.

[linayar]

Yes Amazon has the resources to invest in a new division. But the thing about investment is that the investors expect a profit. Unfortunately Amazon Games Studio was essentially just as trash tier as the vast majority of game studios and publishers today. On the way to their string of failures they've burned a ton of money. Expect another string of resumes to emerge.

I mean, that's details that are not that important to me. Regardless of the company, I'm not going to be really hyped about anything unless a game has been released. That's why this cancellation news is an "oh well" from me rather than an "oh no" as I didn't expect much.

But again, regardless of Amazon or any other company, I'll always like to hear that a big company is trying to make an MMORPG. Is Riot big enough? I think that's another potential (again, if there is enough PVE component, don't care about PVP), but we'll see.

In the meantime, unlike some people, I am actually very content with FFXIV, how it is currently, and where it seems to be heading. So I don't need a new MMORPG to come, but it's always nice if there is one. It would also be nice if current MMORPG (especially other than FFXIV) would become more interesting enough for me to make me want to try them again, but if not, oh well.

[Tommara]

My hopes for the MMORPG market died with The Secret World. Although Funcom did make a lot of mistakes with respect to having so much solo only content in an MMO, the same could be argued about FF14, which has done much better. I did have hopes for The Secret World when finding out that Johnny Depp planned to make a TV series, but it doesn't look like that's gonna happen now. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lW70sT3rpA8 The game has pretty much died already, despite their desperate attempts to save it.

It's just that MMORPG's are expensive to make well. Us MMO players just consume the content too fast, and quality content is expensive.

FF14 is certainly doing a great job, and I hope that they continue to find it profitable to do so. But I don't have high hopes for the genre in general. Sandboxes and PvP games are much cheaper to make.

[MrPresident]

This is phrased very oddly. More options for players is a good thing, they aren’t “competition” because you don’t work for Square Enix.

[Penthea]

I don't think they released a game yet. I heard they bought a studio to make another mmorpg called New World, but that has been pushed back and reception as been lukewarm from what little I read. Now I'm just finding out about about this cancelled LotR mmorpg. I guess Amazon must like this genre?

I can't speak for everyone but myself and my boyfriend really enjoyed New World. We were so disappointed when we found out the release date had been postponed.

[Theodric]

I hope the FFXIV is canceled too. It being live action is a failure by design alone. FFXIV should be animated. Either 2D anime style or with SE's own 3D graphics. Live action is a stupid way to go for this series.

I'm inclined to agree. I've always found live action fantasy to be fairly cheap and tacky looking in the majority of cases. Or elements are changed for no obvious reason at all. I'd prefer something animated, so that the characters can more closely resemble their in-game counterparts and we don't have to rely on actors dressed up in cat ears/bunny ears. If it's anything like the World of Warcraft movie, though, it'll likely just focus on one or two specific races and offer minimal fanservice beyond that.

[linayar]

they aren’t “competition” because you don’t work for Square Enix.

I don't think there is an implication that "competitor in the market" is with respect to the players rather than SE/FFXIV.