LotR Online F2P delay explained

By Fred Dutton Published 19 October, 2010

Codemasters: "Launch is imminent."

The delay of the free-to-play Lord of the Rings Online update is down to "contractual issues", publisher Codemasters has confirmed.

Back in September, Codemasters claimed the update, which launched in the US last month, had been held back for last minute polish. It seems that's not quite the case.

According to Massively, Codemasters' general manager David Solari today posted a statement on the game's EU forums.

"As many of you correctly surmised, the issues have been contractual rather than technical. As they were contractual issues, we are bound by confidentiality and you will understand that I can't give you any further detail.

"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 contractual issues have been resolved and we are on the home stretch."

Solari added, "I can't give an exact date at this time as there is still some preparatory work to do, but rest assured everyone involved is giving 100 per cent to bring Free-to-Play to Europe, and there will be more definitive information hopefully later this week."

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About Fred Dutton

Fred Dutton is Eurogamer's US news editor, based in Washington DC.

Read more articles from Fred by visiting the Fred Dutton archive page.

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Comments (9) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Alivada #1 2 years ago

    Hopefully we will see F2P by the end of October, cos it's taking frigging ages.
    Edited by Alivada at 19/10/10 @ 19:28

  • Garwoofoo #2 2 years ago

    Just sign up for the US servers, it works perfectly if you're in the UK and their F2P is working fine.

  • WMain00 #3 2 years ago

    What Garwoofoo said. Sign up to the US, download, play. Laugh as Codemasters act totally stupid.

  • whizzedout #4 2 years ago

    Ahh wondered why you can play on the US servers, normally you have to play behind a proxy for such things, dumb dumb Codemasters.

  • dylman #5 2 years ago

    I can see them proudly announcing December 7th as the release date. This has been really badly mismanaged.

  • Charlie789 #6 2 years ago

    Im on one of the US servers and it works fine, so unless theres a massive advantage to playing on the EU servers and you really want to play it then just sign up to the US servers instead!

    BTW it isnt exactly free though, in order to get certain functions like auctionhouse and the lone land quests you do have to a ) buy a stack of turbine points or b) complete a load of deeds on a series of alts :( but for casual mmo'ers like myself itll work out much cheaper than paying for a monthly fee

  • Markusdragon #7 2 years ago

    @retrend If I recall, Nexon blocks Europeans from playing their cutesy Korean grindfest games on their US servers because they actively charge Europeans more for the Cash Shop currency. Allegedly.

  • levitate #8 2 years ago

    Something makes me think Codemasters were involved in the production of Duke Nukem Forever...

  • Spekingur #9 2 years ago

    If you already have a sub with LotRO EU going to the US servers is kind of pointless.
    I would guess that most Lifetime Subbers are feeling a bit miffed.