Lord of the Rings Online Going Free-to-Play

[Andy Chalk]

Lord of the Rings Online Going Free-to-Play

Lord of the Rings Online, the MMOG set in J.R.R. Tolkien's legendary fantasy world, will become a free-to-play game later this year.

Raise your hand if this sounds familiar: A World of Warcraft [http://www.turbine.com/] pie but ends up with nothing but a fork in its hand for its trouble. After sulking (and bleeding) for awhile, it heads for a nearby soup kitchen for some free grub and discovers to its amazement that the food there is actually pretty damn good and there's lots of it, too.

I could be referring to WBIE [http://www.ddo.com/] and Turbine have announced that LOTRO will transition to a free-to-play model in North America and Europe this fall, with options for "a la carte" account upgrades and a VIP subscription package for fans who don't want to mess around.

"The popularity of DDO validated the extraordinary demand by gamers for quality entertainment they can experience at their own pace and within their budget," said Turbine President and CEO Jim Crowley. "Extending free-to-play to LOTRO will offer another premium game to a broad spectrum of fans."

But Dungeons & Dragons Online was floundering and slowly sinking, and its transition to free-to-play was more or less a desperation move, whereas LOTRO, by all reports, has done reasonably well since its debut in 2007. So why the change? As the DDO experience proved, "free" can actually be quite lucrative. In February, Turbine announced that DDO revenues had actually increased by 500 percent [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/98683-Free-Dungeons-Dragons-Online-Revenues-Up-500-Percent] since subscription fees were made optional.

A beta test for the "new" Lord of the Rings Online will begin on June 16. To sign up or learn more about the game's future, check out lotro.com [http://www.lotro.com].


Permalink

 

[Danpascooch]

Wait, that game still exists?

 

[Onyx Oblivion]

Reading Shamus's series makes me want to try it. And now, I truly shall.

 

[Irridium]

Wait, that game still exists?

I see you haven't been reading Shamus's little adventure in it.
Shame.

OT: Sounds interesting, now I may be able to check it out. Shamus has piqued my interest.

 

[JEBWrench]

Well, I for one am going to get all up in on that, yo.

 

[erbkaiser]

Hope this is worldwide this time.

 

[Pandalisk]

How nice of them to do that, might as well get it, its free, which proves there right about free sub-scription.

Lots of free games lately, Shattered Horizon, COH MMO, Now this, Its a good week to be really cheap

 

[Vampire cat]

Hm. Well, I'm guessing it's much like WoW, so I'm not gonna waste my time on it. You enjoy yourselves tho =3.

 

[Lazy Kitty]

Wait? Giving away your stuff for free gets more profit than selling it?
This must be a plot to make us give away all our possessions for free so they can sell it on ebay afterwards!

 

[Entropyutd]

I played Lotr online, it was quite fun, for a while although the servers were sparsely populated.
I think the truth of the matter is that World of Warcraft Cataclysm will kill LotR, so in an attempt to hold on to the few people it actually has it will go free.

Free or not I don't foresee myself tying the game again.

 

[Dogstile]

Reading Shamus's series makes me want to try it. And now, I truly shall.

I shall join you. I hope Shamus doesn't kill me for sending him hundreds of pies.

 

[Mechsoap]

im happy about i never bought the life time card lolz

 

[Billion Backs]

That's awesome, I love Turbine.

I've played the game for almost a year when it was released, it can be rather fun and refreshing. Although I found enough reasons to quit at the time.

Although on the other hand, I'm not a big fan of micro-transaction shit. I'd rather pay a subscription to get all the features.

But then again, that's an option in both DDO and LOTRO, so there's nothing to fret about.

Turbine's pretty smart with their strategies...

Maybe I should return to my ol' Dwarf Minstrel some day I have time. Having generic minstrel shout attacks replaced by traditional dwarven battlecries (Baruk Khazad, and so on) was awesome. And by the way, if anyone's planning to play LOTRO, take that into consideration. At least, 2 or so years ago when I still played LOTRO, all the moves that required shouting - stuff like taunts and some shout attacks, latter mostly applied to Captains and Minstrels, would be generic screaming for all races except dwarves, who'd yell the traditional dwarven battle cries half the time. Killing goblins by shouting 'Baruk Khazad" at their faces was awesome.

 

[Scobie]

DELETED

 

[The Great JT]

I like the thought of playing LotRO as much as I want, I've got some faint interest, but I do think it's bullshit how you only get so much unless you pay.

I get the idea, I really do. You want the best stuff, give me $20. Fair enough, but if that's the case, why not just go off a yearly subscription? It's the same thing in DDO, best items in the game always cost money. If you're going to do that and have some items be purchasable with real money, why not just make them extranneous extras that don't impact gameplay?

 

[Slycne]

I think the truth of the matter is that World of Warcraft Cataclysm will kill LotR, so in an attempt to hold on to the few people it actually has it will go free.

Why would Cataclysm kill LotRO when none of the other expansions or new MMOs have? The current populace hasn't jumped ship yet, I don't see why you make the conclusion that they would now. This is more an issue of getting new people to join, not to keep their core base.

 

[Korten12]

the game was quite fun, but since it was P2P, I never continued to play it, maybe now I will, that is until GW2 and possibly the re-release of HGL.

 

[tehroc]

im happy about i never bought the life time card lolz

The game has been out for some 4 years, most lifetime subs have long since paid for themselves. Those people will probably retain their paid sub status.

It's a beautiful game, but quite dull in the mid levels (25+ around when the week trials fade off) since most players have been there and done that.

 

[duchaked]

I'd make pies with Lulzy any day

but no hmm this might be an MMO I'll actually play thanks to Shamus haha

 

[AWAR]

I got it free as a part of my internet connection subscription, sold it to a friend because it wasn't free lol..