Smed was very hyped about this project, they'll just move him to whatever new game comes next, but feel bad for him none the less. Tencent completely shit in their mouths. Probably wanted a share of Prime revenue the show will create to continue to publish the game. Must have Amazon by the balls with that publisher contract if Amazon chose to shutter the game instead of agreeing to a new deal or buyout. Wonder if this is all next level bluffing, and they'll hammer something out over the next few weeks or months. Amazon has 500 million invested in that Prime LoTRO show, and they wanted this game to piggy back off the expected success. I'm fairly shocked this happened. Amazon game studios totally cursed at this point. When New World flops, might just shut the entire thing down for good.