The Lord of the Rings is getting a new MMO, but as many fans know, it already had one. In fact, it's had one since 2007, and it's still going. Amazon, however, sounds a lot less impressed by this feat, and believes that players of this 16-year-old MMO will ditch it in favour of something new.
Speaking in an interview, Amazon Games VP Christoph Hartmann distanced the new LOTR MMO from The Lord of the Rings Online, saying that he feels that fans will "move on" and play its own game instead. He even went as far as to imply that the leap from The Lord of the Rings Online to Amazon's MMO will be like going from "black and white movies to colour", further suggesting that the new game will make the previous one obsolete.
This comes from an interview with Gameindustry.biz (as spotted by Eurogamer), in which Hartmann was asked whether he fears The Lord of the Rings Online will get in the way of Amazon's own MMO.
"Not at all," says Hartmann. "Looking just at the technology, where we're at now, and where we will be in a couple of years, it's just worlds apart."
While he said he has "a lot of respect" for developer Standing Stone, who is still releasing expansions after all this time, he still described the playerbase as "not huge, but a very dedicated".
"It's a little exaggeration if I say it's going to be like black and white movies to colour, but that's the approach I want to take," he added. "It's just a completely different world."
He went on to say that he believes many players will opt for the fancier, next-gen MMO instead. "The most likely scenario is...for people just to move over, because the other one is an old game," says Hartmann. "It's not a bad game, but the industry moves on at some point."
While not in response to Hartmann's comments, Standing Stone has commented on the news over on the LOTRO forums. And despite some fears, it's clear that the devs don't intend to go anywhere just yet.
"Like you, we, and our partners at Middle-earth Enterprises are huge fans of LOTRO," says the devs. "It is beloved, it is sixteen, it is evergreen. LOTRO is like the long-lived Ents, Elves and Dwarves; and we mere mortals, are the stewards of LOTRO and its community.
"Standing Stone has every intention of growing and supporting this community. The road goes ever on..."
Right now, we don't even have a name for Amazon's own MMO, so LOTRO will keep its lead for the time being. Of course, it remains to be seen if that can last once the new game launches, whenever that is.