Summary
- Amazon plans to reveal upcoming Tomb Raider and Lord of the Rings games soon.
- Amazon aims for high-quality games to establish itself as a top publisher.
- Potential reveals could happen later this year, possibly at The Game Awards.
It looks like Amazon is gearing up to formally reveal its upcoming Tomb Raider and Lord of the Rings games in the near future, judging from recent statements made by an executive at the company. Though the tech giant's game publishing arm has released a handful of titles over the last few years, it still has yet to make a name for itself in the highly-competitive landscape of the gaming industry. Fortunately, though, gamers might finally get to see the fruits of Amazon's AAA game initiative sooner rather than later with the reveal of these two major projects.
In December 2022, Amazon surprised Tomb Raider fans by announcing that it would be partnering up with Crystal Dynamics and IP holder Embracer Group to publish the next mainline installment in the popular action-adventure franchise. It turns out that wasn't the only deal that Amazon had struck with the embattled Swedish holding company, however, as the tech conglomerate later revealed that it was working on a new AAA Lord of the Rings MMO in collaboration with Embracer Group's Middle-earth Enterprises. These two projects were announced with little-to-no details, but they at least signified Amazon's intent to take its AAA publishing arm to greater heights, despite the company's past efforts being rather mixed in terms of success.
Rumor: Next Mainline Tomb Raider Game Might Be Open World
Recent rumors indicate that the next mainline installment in the Tomb Raider franchise may be set in a fully open-world environment.
Although neither the Tomb Raider nor the Lord of the Rings games have received substantial updates from their respective developers over the last year or so, reveals for both titles are "not too far away." That's according to Amazon Games vice president Christoph Hartmann, who recently held an interview with Variety to discuss the future of the tech conglomerate's foray into the game publishing business. The executive stated that, although fans won't get any news on the LotR MMO and the Amazon-published Tomb Raider game "tomorrow," they can expect to hear more about them soon, as the company is allegedly "getting into a much more regular cadence of shipping games."
Amazon Wants To Ensure Its Tomb Raider and Lord of the Rings Games Are High-Quality
Hartmann later stated that he doesn't have much more to share about these upcoming titles, though he did add that Amazon wants to ensure that both games are critically well-received. "It's all about quality. You don’t want to just be rushed out. That doesn’t work. It has to be Triple-A quality, because the bar is so high." Indeed, titles like the upcoming Tomb Raider game need to come out swinging in order for Amazon to establish itself as "one of the best publishers out there," like Hartmann hopes the company will eventually become.
Based off of Hartmann's statements, it seems possible, if not likely, that the untitled Lord of the Rings MMO and the new Tomb Raider game will be unveiled later this year, perhaps at The Game Awards 2024. With The Rings of Power Season 2 and the Tomb Raider TV series on the way, Amazon could even capitalize on the potential success of the shows to make the reveals of its upcoming games more impactful.
Amazon first began as an e-commerce company that provided customers with books and other media. It has since evolved into a massive company with many subsets, selling products, providing custom content through Prime Video, and even has its own video game development company.
Checkbox: control the expandable behavior of the extra info