The Combatant Video Game Division of Amazon.com Inc. has canceled an online role-playing game based on the fantasy series Lord of the Rings. announced in 2019, another setback for the technology giant.
The game was under development at Amazon Game Studios alongside China-based Leyou Technologies Holdings Ltd., which was bought by a conglomerate Tencent Holdings Ltd. in December. The resulting contract negotiations led to a dispute between Amazon and Tencent that ultimately caused the game’s cancellation, said people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified as they were not authorized to speak publicly on the matter. .
An Amazon spokesperson confirmed that following Tencent’s acquisition of Leyou, “we have not been able to obtain conditions to proceed with this title at this time.”
The Amazon team working on the game will be moved to other projects. “We love the Lord of the Rings IP and are disappointed that we will not be bringing this game to customers,” the Seattle-based company spokesman said in a statement.
Read more: Amazon stumbles over video games
The cancellation follows a string of bad news for Amazon Game Studios, which hasn’t been able to release a successful video game since its launch in 2014. The company has canceled previously announced games Breakaway and Crucible. Another game, New World, has been repeatedly postponed.
Amazon owns the popular streaming service Twitch, but the video game division has been struggling for years due to mismanagement and cultural clashes between game developers and the company’s principles, Bloomberg reported earlier this year.