LORD OF THE RINGS ONLINE wird free2play

Tur­bine Inc., die erst kürz­lich von War­ner er­wor­ben wur­den, ha­ben zu­sam­men mit ih­ren neuen Chefs und Code­mas­ters eine Pres­se­mit­tei­lung her­aus­ge­ge­ben, in der das be­stä­tigt wird, was die LOTRO-Spieler seit dem Kauf be­fürch­tet ha­ben:

HERR DER RINGE ON­LINE wird in ein free2play-Spiel um­ge­baut, bei dem man aber wei­ter­hin ein mo­nat­li­ches Abo be­zah­len kann (ei­nen so­ge­nann­ten VIP-Zugang), um Premium-Inhalte zu be­kom­men. Wer das nicht hat, kann in ei­nem Item­shop Gim­micks wie be­son­dere Ge­gen­stände, mehr Cha­rak­ter­plätze oder spe­zi­elle An­pas­sun­gen der Spiel­fi­gur ge­gen harte Eu­ros er­wer­ben. Abon­nen­ten sol­len au­to­ma­tisch je­den Mo­nat eine ge­wisse An­zahl an Credits er­hal­ten, um im Shop ein­kau­fen zu kön­nen.

Ein ähn­li­ches Mo­dell nutzt Tur­bine be­reits seit ei­ni­ger Zeit bei sei­nem MMO DUN­GE­ONS & DRA­GONS ON­LINE.

Sei­tens der treuen Spiel­er­ge­meinde be­fürch­tet man nun un­ter an­de­rem, dass diese Ent­schei­dung dazu füh­ren könnte, dass das Spiel von Hor­den von Kid­dies ohne Kohle über­fal­len wird. Es wird sich zei­gen müs­sen, ob diese Ent­schei­dung sei­tens War­ner und Tur­bine eine kluge war — ich be­zweifle das.

An­ge­kün­digt wurde die Um­wand­lung des Be­zahl­mo­dells für den Herbst die­sen Jah­res.

Die voll­stän­dige Pres­se­mel­dung im er­wei­ter­ten Ar­ti­kel.

Co­ver HDRO Co­py­right Code­mas­ters, Tur­bine

War­ner Bros. In­ter­ac­tive En­ter­tain­ment An­noun­ces The Lord of the Rings On­line™ to Ad­opt Glo­bal Free-to-Play Mo­del

Turbine’s Award-winning On­line Game Will Be Free-to-Play World­wide This Fall

BUR­BANK, CA – June 4, 2010 – War­ner Bros. In­ter­ac­tive En­ter­tain­ment an­noun­ced to­day that Tur­bine, Inc. will un­veil a ma­jor up­date this fall, ma­king The Lord of the Rings On­line™ (LO­TRO) free-to-play for ever­yone.  Ex­ten­ding its award-winning story, LO­TRO de­li­vers the ul­ti­mate ad­ven­ture fea­turing a mas­sive world with state-of-the-art gra­phics and ga­me­play, and a rich set of fea­tures that un­til now could only be found in pre­mium subscription-based on­line ga­mes.

Launching this fall across North Ame­rica and Eu­rope, with Code­mas­ters ope­ra­ting the game free-to-play in Eu­rope, LO­TRO will in­tro­duce Turbine’s in­no­va­tive new pri­cing mo­del that al­lows play­ers to down­load the game and play for free, purchase ex­pan­si­ons, quest packs, items, and ac­count ser­vices a la carte from the new LO­TRO Store, or join the VIP pro­gram to get un­li­mited ac­cess to all of the game’s con­tent for one low price.  Play­ers in­te­res­ted in get­ting a sneak peek of the new LO­TRO can sign up for a chance to par­ti­ci­pate in the Beta pro­gram which begins June 16, 2010 at http://www.lotro.com.

“War­ner Bros. In­ter­ac­tive En­ter­tain­ment is brin­ging qua­lity ga­mes ba­sed on The Lord of the Rings to mul­ti­ple plat­forms, and the franchise’s ex­pan­sive ad­ven­ture story lends its­elf per­fectly for LO­TRO free-to-play, gi­ving a wide range of play­ers the op­por­tu­nity to ex­pe­ri­ence the game,” said Jeff Junge, Se­nior Vice Pre­si­dent On­line Ga­mes and Di­gi­tal Ga­mes Plat­forms, War­ner Bros. Di­gi­tal Dis­tri­bu­tion and War­ner Bros. In­ter­ac­tive En­ter­tain­ment.  “We are fo­cu­sed on ex­pan­ding our game fran­chi­ses onto new di­gi­tal plat­forms to ma­xi­mize qua­lity ex­pe­ri­en­ces for ga­mers world­wide and LOTRO’s new mo­del is a great lea­ding example of this.”

“Turbine’s Dun­ge­ons and Dra­gons On­line®: Eber­ron Un­li­mited™ was the world’s first truly pre­mium free-to-play on­line game that us­he­red in a new era of choice for on­line ga­mers see­king qua­lity en­ter­tain­ment,” said Jim Crow­ley, Pre­si­dent and CEO of Tur­bine. “The po­pu­la­rity of DDO va­li­da­ted the ex­tra­or­di­nary de­mand by ga­mers for qua­lity en­ter­tain­ment they can ex­pe­ri­ence at their own pace and wi­t­hin their bud­get. Ex­ten­ding free-to-play to LO­TRO will of­fer ano­ther pre­mium game to a broad spec­trum of fans.”

“Ha­ving suc­cess­fully ta­ken two tit­les free-to-play in the past we are very plea­sed to be do­ing the same with The Lord of the Rings On­line in Eu­rope,” said Da­vid So­lari, Vice Pre­si­dent and Ge­ne­ral Ma­na­ger of Code­mas­ters On­line.  “It’s a fan­tas­tic, award-winning game with a won­der­fully rea­li­zed world and this step will only broa­den its ap­peal and in­crease its player base.”

LO­TRO will of­fer play­ers un­li­mited choice!

* Free means Free! – Play­ers will down­load LO­TRO by vi­sit­ing www.lotro.com and join with mil­li­ons of other ad­ven­tu­rers as they ex­plore the most com­plete and au­then­tic re­crea­tion of Middle-earth ever crea­ted and par­ti­ci­pate in LOTRO’s award-winning epic story up to le­vel 50 for free.

* Vi­sit the new LO­TRO Store! — The LO­TRO Store is loa­ded with thousands of con­ve­ni­ence items as well as ex­pan­sion packs, pre­mium con­tent, ad­di­tio­nal cha­rac­ter slots, po­ti­ons, cha­rac­ter cu­st­o­miza­tion and more! The LO­TRO Store is se­am­lessly in­te­gra­ted into the game and lets the player iden­tify new and ex­cit­ing ways to en­hance and cu­st­o­mize their ex­pe­ri­ence using points which can be purchased in the store or ear­ned through ga­me­play.

* Be a LO­TRO VIP! – Play­ers who elect  to be­come a LO­TRO VIP will have un­li­mited ac­cess to all pre­mium con­tent, re­ceive prio­rity ser­ver ac­cess, 5 cha­rac­ter slots, a shared bank slot, and a monthly al­lot­ment of points to spend in the new LO­TRO Store.

The Lord of the Rings On­line is the ul­ti­mate ad­ven­ture. This award-winning mas­si­vely mul­ti­player on­line role-playing game de­li­vers an in­ter­ac­tive ex­pe­ri­ence brim­ming with life and fil­led with the fa­mi­liar people, pla­ces and mons­ters from the most fa­mous fan­tasy of all time. From the pic­tures­que sur­roun­dings of the Shire to Mo­ria, the most fear­some un­der­ground realm ever ima­gi­ned, play­ers will soon ex­pe­ri­ence the world of Middle-earth for free!  For more in­for­ma­tion, vi­sit www.lotro.com.

About Tur­bine
Tur­bine, Inc. is a pre­mier crea­tor and ope­ra­tor of mas­sive, per­sis­tent on­line worlds that fos­ter power­ful so­cial ga­ming com­mu­nities. Tur­bine is wholly ow­ned by War­ner Bros. Home En­ter­tain­ment Group and has crea­ted some of the world’s most po­pu­lar and award-winning on­line ga­mes, in­clu­ding The Lord of the Rings On­line™, Dun­ge­ons & Dra­gons On­line®: Eber­ron Un­li­mited™, and Asheron’s Call®.  For more in­for­ma­tion on Tur­bine, its pro­ducts and ser­vices please vi­sit www.turbine.com.

About Middle-earth En­ter­pri­ses
The Saul Za­entz Com­pany d/b/a Middle-earth En­ter­pri­ses f/k/a Tol­kien En­ter­pri­ses (SZC), is the hol­der of world­wide mo­tion pic­ture, le­gi­ti­mate stage, mer­chan­di­sing, and other rights in the li­ter­ary works of  J.R.R. Tol­kien in­clu­ding The Lord of the Rings and The Hob­bit.  SZC has been pro­du­cing and li­cen­sing films, stage pro­duc­tions and mer­chan­dise ba­sed on the Tol­kien works for more than 30 years.  Its head­quar­ters are lo­ca­ted in Ber­ke­ley, Ca­li­for­nia and its Middle-earth En­ter­pri­ses web­site may be found at www.middleearth.com.

About Code­mas­ters
Code­mas­ters is a lea­ding de­ve­l­oper and publis­her of best-selling in­ter­ac­tive en­ter­tain­ment pro­ducts for a glo­bal au­di­ence across mul­ti­ple ga­ming plat­forms and chan­nels. Es­ta­blis­hed in 1986, the company’s do­mi­nant brands in­clude Co­lin McRae DiRT, Race Dri­ver GRID, Over­lord and Ope­ra­tion Flash­point; the com­pany re­cently se­cu­red the ex­clu­sive world­wide vi­deo game rights to FOR­MULA 1. Code­mas­ters is head­quar­te­red in War­wickshire UK, with North Ame­ri­can ope­ra­ti­ons ba­sed in Uni­ver­sal City, Ca­li­for­nia.  The com­pany also main­tains ope­ra­ti­ons in Ger­many, France, Spain, Be­ne­lux and Ma­lay­sia.  Code­mas­ters re­cei­ves over two mil­lion vi­si­tors to its web site every month, dis­co­ver why at www.codemasters.com.

About War­ner Bros. In­ter­ac­tive En­ter­tain­ment
War­ner Bros. In­ter­ac­tive En­ter­tain­ment, a di­vi­sion of War­ner Bros. Home En­ter­tain­ment Group, is a pre­mier world­wide publis­her, de­ve­l­oper, li­cen­sor and dis­tri­bu­tor of en­ter­tain­ment con­tent for the in­ter­ac­tive space across all cur­rent and fu­ture plat­forms, in­clu­ding con­sole, hand­held and PC-based ga­ming for both in­ter­nal and third party game tit­les.