Amazon forges fellowship for 'Lord of the Rings' online video game

Director Peter Jackson on Amazon's "Lord of the Rings" series: "I'd like to try to be of assistance." Amazon has landed a prime franchise on which to build an online game: the Lord of the Rings. Amazon Game Studios will jointly develop the free online game with Hong Kong-headquartered Leyou Technology Holdings, which owns several game studios including Digital Extremes, maker of sci-fi role-playing action game "Warframe." There is no release date for the console and PC game, a massively multiplayer online action title à la "World of Warcraft." Last year, Athlon Games, an L.A.-based Leyou subsidiary announced it had reached a deal with Middle-Earth Enterprises to create a game based in J.R.R. Tolkien's Hobbit-laden universe during the time before the events in the Lord of the Rings trilogy.