Daily Briefing: Monday 19th April

Amazon cancel Lord of the Rings MMO

Amazon were previously co-developing the title with Athlon Games but have cancelled it following a dispute with Tencent - who acquired Athlon Games' parent Leyou Technologies in December 2020.

• Contract negotiations for The Lord of the Rings title reportedly broke down in the wake of Tencent's acquisition of Leyou. Amazon have released a statement expressing their disappointment that they won't be able to release the game, with the team being thought to have moved to other projects.

That Xbox controller drift lawsuit has moved to arbitration

Confirmation that the class action suit has moved out of the courtroom came from the law firm handling it - Chimicles Schwartz Kriner & Donaldson-Smith (CSK&D). The firm have outlined that this likely means the "end of the road" as it won't enter a public court.

• Despite what is obviously a setback, the firm have confirmed that they will be pressing ahead with their bid to recover damages for their clients - outlining that they have acquired a "sufficient volume" of faulty controllers to aid their case. So watch this space.

Square Enix deny acquisition rumours

The initial report of the company's potential sale came from Bloomberg who, citing several bankers "familiar with the matter", suggested that a number of competing buyers had their wallets at the ready.

• Square Enix have since released a statement affirming that they aren't considering selling the company or "any part of its business." It seems like there's been a lot of acquisition talk recently, usually involving Microsoft - presumably they were in the mix?

Days Gone writer says games need to be supported at launch

John Garvin, the game's writer and creative director, said in a PR nightmare of a discussion that, if players enjoy a game, then they should "buy it at f*cking full price" instead of on sale or via subscription services.

• Garvin's strong statement comes shortly after it emerged that Sony weren't interested in a Days Gone sequel due to the original's apparently unsatisfactory performance. His advice to players is "don't complain if a game doesn't get a sequel if it wasn't supported at launch." He sounds just lovely, doesn't he?