Lord of the Rings MMORPG cancelled, New World updates finished as Amazon lays off game workers

Amazon is substantially reducing its presence in gaming, winding back its first-party game development and publishing divisions while also cancelling key projects along the way.

Amazon is preparing to lay off 14,000 workers, and the company's ailing games division will be hit hard. In a memo obtained by Bloomberg, an Amazon Games executive confirmed the cutbacks, telling employees to expect "significant role reductions."

Projects like the Lord of the Rings MMORPG have been cancelled, the report says, and the remaining in-house Amazon Games teams will focus on creating "casual and AI-focused games." New World, the division's most popular game at one point, has been sunset into maintenance mode and will no longer be receiving new updates, leading to an eventual shut down in 2026. This news comes shortly after the Season 10 update successfully attracted user engagement.

"While we're proud of our successes in first-party AAA game development and publishing, we have made the difficult decision to halt a significant amount of our first-party AAA game development work - specifically around MMOs - within Amazon Game Studios, including making significant role reductions in our studios in Irvine and San Diego, as well as our central publishing team," part of the memo reads.

Amazon will continue updating existing games like Throne of Liberty and Lost Ark with new content, the company confirmed in a statement to MassivelyOp.

The report also says that Crystal Dynamics' new Tomb Raider game is still in development and March of Giants is still coming.