The Lord Of The Rings franchise will be receiving a brand new AAA MMO courtesy of Athlon Games. The game will be coming to PC and as-of-yet unannounced consoles sometime in the near future. The Lord of the Rings MMO will be the first of its kind in over a decade.
The new Lord Of The Rings MMO was announced by Leyou Technologies and will be published and partially developed by Athlon Games. Athlon will not be the sole developer of the project as it will also be working in tandem with a currently unknown partner developer. The project aims to “to create an engrossing new AAA experience” set in the world created by J.R.R. Tolkien. The press release adds that players will explore “lands, people and creatures never seen before by fans of the Tolkien universe.”
Additionally, the game will be set prior to the events of the famous novel series. The press release also hints at what the MMO’s business plan will be. It notes that both Leyou Technologies and Athlon Games have a “deep expertise with free-to-play game design and service” suggesting a free-to-play model for the AAA online game.
Athlon currently does not have any projects to its name, however, its president Dave Miller has had previous experience in the industry. This includes working at Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, Codemasters, and NBC Universal. Leyou Technologies, as mentioned before, owns Warframe developers Digital Extremes. This means that across the corporate map associated with Athlon Games, this new Lord of the Rings MMO has some hope.
However, this not the first Lord of the Rings free-to-play MMO as The Lord of the Rings Online was released in 2007 and is running to this day. There is currently no news if this new MMO will affect the continued operation of the Standing Stone Games-developed title.
