There are countless number of video games inspired by the most famous saga of all time, The Lord of the Rings. From card games like LOTR Living Card Game to RPGs like Middle-earth: Shadow of War or even MMOs like Lord of the Rings Online, it becomes extremely difficult to stay innovative and creative on the subject. This is however the challenge that Athlon Games launched under the protective wing of Amazon Games Studios.
A few words about the game
The game in preparation promises to be a free-to-play MMORPG on PC and consoles based on the literary trilogy of JRR Tolkien - the books therefore, not the movies. At this stage of development, no details of the story have been revealed. However, we know that the game will stand out strongly from the series that Amazon is producing in parallel.
According to GameSpot (source), the game would be a crafting, PvP, sandbox MMO. A game therefore which would mainly focus on the use of different functionalities, as we can see on New World, it's a safe bet that the future MMO will be in direct competition with its big brother LOTRO, launched in 2007.
An open beta by 2023?
Athlon Games is one of the branches of the Chinese company Leyou, which is currently for sale. Fortunately, it doesn't stop the production of the game and it allows us to learn a little more about the current development schedule.
Thus will remain announced in a post (source) that the aesthetics as well as the game design of the game have been validated since September 2019. However, it seems that the MMO will not be released anytime soon, in fact the open beta is currently planned for September 2022. Only on PC to begin with, however, it should quickly spread to consoles. If you are interested in the details and are not afraid of the paperwork, you can find the game license agreement as well as the co-development and cooperation agreement with Amazon here.
An unlimited production budget?
Such a partnership with the giant Amazon already announces that a colossal budget will be deployed in the development of the game. Indeed, the documents set out the details of the distribution of the production budget. Thus Amazon would cover 70% of the costs (up to $ 42 million) and Leyou the remaining 30% (a little over $ 18 million).
A budget of around $ 60 million would therefore be at stake, just for development, because the additional last minute costs, marketing during the campaign for the release of the game as well as the development costs of the bets are not included. up to date in the initial budget.
The least we can say is that the game - on paper - holds our attention. We will be impatiently awaiting the first gameplay images.
Original content by Célia "Lolisa".
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