Today, Westwood, Massachusetts-based video game developer Turbine announced a new expansion for its Lord of the Rings Online MMORPG, entitled Siege of Mirkwood. The expansion will be offered as a free digital download for paying users.
Commonly, MMO makers charge premium prices for major game expansions. Last November, the globally top-selling MMORPG World of Warcraft released its latest expansion, Wrath of the Lich King, in stores for a premium price of around $50. Typically, such for-pay expansions are offered as free downloads after a number of months.
Turbine's decision to release Siege of Mirkwood as a free download may be a smart tactic in the current economic environment. The company has always offered smaller content updates, known as "Books," free to users as downloads. The game's first major expansion, Mines of Moria, was released to stores as a premium-priced title in March 2008.
The new expansion increases the number of playable areas in Mirkwood, and includes Sauron's former fortress of Dol Guldur. The expansion also raises the level cap to 65, and introduces "Skirmishes," in which players create customizable soldiers and lead them into randomized instances. A "World Join" function will allow players and their Fellowships (guilds) to band together to fight in certain locations.
And there is a new 12-player raid with the Lord of the Nazgûl as the level boss. Be sure to bring along a woman and a halfling.
No release date more specific than "Fall 2009" has been announced.
Comments
Pretty sure you will find that this is NOT a free expansion. The suggestion is, that it will retail for $19.99 according to the game-developers on the official forums.
Yeah, this is the only place I've seen it referred to as free. $19.99 is what I'm hearing, too.
Nope. Not free. For some reason Kotaku said ti was free in their story and other sites have been copying them without checking the facts.
When information on a news site is incorrect, it isn't always because we did not check the facts. :) In this instance, I have queried the Turbine PR Department, but I haven't heard back, probably because it's the Labor Day weekend.
I do promise that if the facts above are incorrect, I will correct the post at once.
Thanks to all of you for pointing out the issue!
Fellowships aren't like guilds.
@Captain Obvious says:
You are correct. They are like raid parties or PUGs.
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