Don't Expect the LORD OF THE RINGS MMO to Release Before 2023

Image of The Lord of the Rings Online

Back in 2007, Standing Stone Games and Turbine released The Lord of the Rings Online alongside publishers Daybreak Game Company, Codemasters, and Midway Games. The game is still running although not nearly as popular as it once was. Then, last year, Amazon Game Studios announced a new Massive Multiplayer Online game (MMO) that would take place on Middle-Earth before the events of The Lord of the Rings. The game was to be developed by Leyou Technologies who have since been bought by Tencent Games.

Well, some documents have ended up online including the Project Austin Co-Development and Co-Operation Agreement. This agreement lists some of the milestones for licensors and points to what the originally planned release window for the new LOTR game was. The schedule had a PC closed beta happening by September 2022 and an open beta by January 2023. The game was then set to release within one year of the open beta launch making it at the absolute latest January 2024, or more likely, Summer 2023.

So, when should we expect the game to release? Considering that these documents were signed back in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic, who the heck knows. It is possible that the teams are still shooting for these goals, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it pushed things back. All that said, I would not expect the game to launch until 2023 at the absolute earliest with possibly trailers and first looks coming in 2022 if we’re lucky.

Via: ComicBook.com