Amazon Games has been trying to make a The Lord of the Rings game for years, but nothing has materialized. The company isn't giving up, but it's still early days for what it might do with a Middle-earth game.

Amazon was working on two different versions of a The Lord of the Rings MMO, but neither panned out. Amazon Games boss Jeff Gattis told IGN, that, "The true answer is we're still looking at a number of different things."

He admitted this is "not the most satisfying answer," but it's where the company is at currently.

"I looked at a project a couple of weeks ago that I thought was quite compelling that perhaps we can go forward with. But evaluating different concepts is trying to figure out what game we want to make, what's the right one for our audience, what's the right one for the broader audience. And my hope is that we'll get there," he said.

A scene from The Two Towers

One of Amazon's planned The Lord of the Rings MMOs was being made in partnership with the Chinese company Leyou. When that company got acquired by Tencent, the deal for the game fell apart. Amazon later made a deal with The Lord of the Rings rights-owner Embracer for another MMO, but this game didn't get off the ground either.

In May this year, Gattis said Amazon remained intent on finding a "compelling new game experience that does justice to Tolkien's world."

It remains to be seen what that could be. While Amazon's plans for a The Lord of the Rings MMO are still up in the air, another company, Warhorse Studios, recently announced plans to make a "deeply immersive" Middle-earth open-world game. Tomb Raider studio Crystal Dynamics is said to be working on a new The Lord of the Rings game as well.

Amazon has not had a ton of ongoing success in the gaming world, but Gattis said the company is not giving up.

"We've got a ton in development right now. We almost just wish this stuff could come faster so that I could have proof points to tell you instead of just saying, ‘Trust me, we've got stuff coming.' But all in due time," he explained, adding that Amazon in general remains "committed" to the AAA space.

Amazon might not have a The Lord of the Rings game yet, but the company is behind the TV series The Rings of Power, which comes back for its third season this November. Amazon is also behind the upcoming Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis and Tomb Raider: Catalyst games coming in 2027, as the publisher.

What's more, Amazon will take over from IO as the publisher of the next James Bond game, should one be made.

The Super Mario Galaxy Movie continues to soar at the box office, despite already being available to watch at home, and now it's crossed a major milestone. The animated movie from Illumination, Universal, and Nintendo has exceeded $1 billion worldwide.

It's made $429 million from North America and $571.5 million from international markets for a global total of just over $1 billion. The movie was released on April 1 and is now the first movie in 2026 to pass $1 billion.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GuCejewteF8

The next closest to The Super Mario Galaxy Movie is the Michael Jackson film Michael, which has earned $888 million globally. Rounding out the top five highest-grossing movies worldwide this year are Project Hail Mary ($680 million), The Devil Wears Prada 2 ($664 million), and Pegasus 3 ($656 million).

2023's The Super Mario Bros. Movie made over $1 billion as well, ending its run with $1.36 billion globally and ranking as the No. 2 movie worldwide that year, only trailing Barbie ($1.44 billion). The Super Mario Bros. Movie is the highest-grossing video game movie of all time, followed by The Super Mario Galaxy Movie at No. 2 and A Minecraft Movie at No. 3.

The Super Mario Galaxy Movie is expected to be among the highest-grossing movies of 2026, but some are expecting Toy Story 5 (June 19) to surpass it. Toy Story 3 and Toy Story 4 passed $1 billion, and expectations are sky high for Toy Story 5, especially after it was confirmed that Taylor Swift wrote a new song for it, no doubt inspiring her legions of fans to go see it.

Other movies for 2026 that are expected to put up gigantic numbers at the box office include Minions & Monsters, the live-action Moana, The Odyssey, Spider-Man: Brand New Day, Avengers: Doomsday, and Dune 3.

Given the huge success of The Super Mario Bros. Movie and The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, it's expected Nintendo and Universal will make another animated movie--and it could arrive in 2029. Beyond animated movies, Nintendo partnered with Sony on a live-action The Legend of Zelda movie that's coming in April 2027. Nintendo is pushing so heavily into filmmaking in part because there are only so many people the company can reach through games.

While you can still go see The Super Mario Galaxy Movie in theaters, you can also now buy and rent it at home digitally, or preorder the physical version on Blu-ray.

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Rent The Super Mario Galaxy Movie at Amazon

The Super Mario Galaxy Movie will eventually be available on a subscription streaming platform, and it should be Peacock given that Universal owns it. A streaming date hasn't been announced yet, but it could come in August if the precedent set with 2023's The Super Mario Bros. Movie holds. That movie was released theatrically in April, came to PVOD in May, and then arrived on Peacock in August.

The NES, SNES, and Game Boy Nintendo Switch Online apps all received mysterious updates (to versions 9.0.0, 6.0.0, and 4.0.0, respectively), and a prolific dataminer has claimed that these patches are meant to add challenges.

These challenges aren't accessible yet, but according to LuigiBlood on Bluesky (as spotted by Nintendo Everything), they will be similar to what players saw in the 2013 Wii U game NES Remix.

https://bsky.app/profile/luigiblood.bsky.social/post/3mnr4xhpypc2w

For the many who skipped out on the Wii U, NES Remix contained quick excerpts of classic NES games, challenging players to complete parts of titles like Super Mario Bros. or The Legend of Zelda with specific objectives or constraints.

NES Remix also contained more outlandish "remixes" of classic games (e.g., completing a level of Donkey Kong as Link), but LuigiBlood doesn't believe that the Nintendo Switch Online challenges will have anything of the sort.

As of now, there are 84 NES games, 77 SNES games, and 43 Game Boy games on the NSO service in the North American and PAL regions. According to LuigiBlood, these challenges will only be for specific games and will be accessible through the NSO app on the Switch home menu. Any possible rewards that would come with these challenges are unknown at this point.

An announcement of such a feature for Nintendo Classics would be perfectly suited for a Nintendo Direct, and it just so happens that the company confirmed that a presentation will stream on Tuesday, June 9.

Every NES And SNES Game On Nintendo Switch Online View Images