Lord of the Rings Online went free in the US, with massive success , but the European free to play release was delayed. Codemasters have released a statement explaining the situation.
General Manager of Codemasters Online, David Solari's statement says "as many of you correctly surmised, the issues have been contractual rather than technical," he adds that "this is the reason why we have been unable to provide you with any substantial information as to when we will go Free-to-Play, despite the desire to share this with you. Unfortunately a contract was required in order to go Free-to-Play and this has taken much longer to conclude than expected."
The good news is that the Lord of the Rings MMO will definitely be going free to play in Europe, and it sounds like it's not too far away. Solari mentions that "the contractual issues have been resolved and we are on the home stretch," saying that "we can confirm the launch is imminent and we should be able to announce the dates later this week/early next week." We'll have those dates for you as soon as they're announced.
Part of the UK team, Tom was with PC Gamer at the very beginning of the website's launch—first as a news writer, and then as online editor until his departure in 2020. His specialties are strategy games, action RPGs, hack ‘n slash games, digital card games… basically anything that he can fit on a hard drive. His final boss form is Deckard Cain.
