Yes, it seems we can never quite get away from this topic. Over the past many months there’s been concerns from some people over the LOTRO license, as it was previously set to expire sometime this year. While I personally never doubted that it would be extended, we now have official confirmation by Sapience:
I just wanted to drop in and address the concerns surrounding the license, again. We have said as far back as July of 2013, we plan to support LOTRO for many years to come. I really want to be as clear as possible on this subject to avoid any further confusion or misunderstanding. The license was renewed.
We have an agreement that runs through 2017.
I sincerely hope now that we can move on from this tiresome subject, at least for another couple of years. Maybe by then I’ll be less inclined to gouge out my own eyeballs.
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Sadly there will always be nay-sayers but I am pleased with this news.
*phew*
Yippee!
This announcement means nothing regarding the future of LOTRO. Yes, it could technically run through 2017, license-wise, but that doesn’t mean the game will do so. Nor does it mean Warner Brothers doesn’t have other plans for said license. All he said is that the agreement runs through 2017, nothing more.
No expansion in 2014, no new traditional instances, raids or even Epic Battles are being planned at this time, “quarterly” updates in which we have no idea what will be included and a hastily written producers letter that lacked any real substance and made it sound like LOTRO was going into “maintenance mode”.
Yeah, that sounds like Warner Brothers is making the most of the LotR license, doesn’t it?
P.S. They still haven’t come out and said that it has been renewed. He just said that they “have an agreement”. They’ve ALWAYS had an agreement, and said agreement has always had a 2017 date on it, however, there was the minor part about an extension in 2014. I mean, you would think that they would have put press releases out stating their license has been extended to 2017. But, no, we have to go off the word of a community manager who has never, ever misled or lied to anyone. *rolleyes*
There are never any guarantees in life, especially when big business is involved. And doubtless WB would love to use the license on as many different projects as possible in order to squeeze as much profit out of the IP as possible. It’s an expensive license, I’m sure – I’d do the same! However, I do see this as one hurdle lifted to the continuation of LOTRO, and reason for at least a little optimism.
As for the way they’ve communicated it, I’ve kind of given up trying to guess how Turbine is going to communicate news. They also communicated charging for epic battles as a footnote in the forums, which was a fairly major PR misstep. It seems that the game is old enough now that press releases are reserved for new expansion announcements and…that’s pretty much it.
As Braxwolf said there never are any guarantees in life. And I would add that we don’t really no what the no expansion in 2014 means yet.Yes it could mean WB is pulling money out. It could also mean Turbine has learned they need to take more time with their expansions. I at least welcome the news of there being no expansion this year. I miss the regular content updates of the pre MoM days. And they are giving us four new areas, each of which I am greatly looking forward to.
People can, and will, jump to conclusions on things. But as the saying goes “When you assume you make an ass out of u and me”. So I think this is simply one of those times when we are simply going to have to wait and see what happens.
Sapience said, “The license was renewed.” at the end of the first quote. While it is possible he could not be honest about that, I doubt it considering the amount of press this is getting across several major general MMO sites.
hi there 😀 in my opinion:S i loved lotro so much but today i think the game doesnt do any justice to the books and movies, comparing the quality of the main charathers from the movie and ingame it appears that those lost the interest and that personality and in someway banalizes those charathers, the game is old the animations are old and repeated, the combat continues to be slow for me i already dont have any will to keep going and play it even if i love LOTR but this game is killing everithing i liked in lotr, the solution for me is let the game die and create something better something that isnt reapeated and boring that has avatars that their hair does move and arent stiff something like the charathers in lotr war in the north and its combat that is flowed and fun, a mix betwen lotro and war in the north would be perfect:D
another option is : please turbine, i know you did check all the classes with the launch of helms deep the core is there but avatars need to be improved and revamped and combat animations in some classes needs attention too they are too lazy worked. please work on that i bet htis problem is the problem of many players:D
thank you and best regards
My only complaint as far as Lotro not doing justice to the books or movies is the, the voice acting is horrid especially with Helm’s Deep. There are so many points where if they had just found good voice actors the scene could have been epic, instead it comes off as cheesy. If I turn off my speakers and just read text though I love it.
The other thing I will saw is that remember that Lotro is does not have any real relation to the movies it is more closely based on the books. As far as it doing justice to those books I think it does a great job, with the exception stated above. I love the Edoras and Helm’s Deep of the game far more then I ever did of the movie. The fact that an army of elves does not show up in the game, and the Legolas actually makes a joke about that, is an added benefit. Rohan looks as it should, not a land of rocks and boulders as it was in the movies. And the rest of lotro’s land masses also look good.
I love and completely agree about updating the avatars. I don’t see it happening though. would probably take some major updates to the core systems running the game.
i never saw the things in your point of view and i loved it:D you brought me will to keep going and play it 😀 yes the voice acting its what turns me off the most in relation to the main charathers and frodo and the other hobbits could be more well made:S for example i dont imagine the lotro Sam so lacking of life saying and doing those beautifull things for frodo i just cant i only see him as a npc hobbit dressed like others dont have any distinct thing that i can say that is Sam the savior of middle earth when i referenced the movies it was only for the actors they were very outstanding:D they could have done the main charathers so distinct and with a voice acting respecting those as the movies its the perfect example that they could have used:S
but that joke that legolas does about the elf army that doesnt show up i think only that its worth for everything xD
i know the ravaping of avatars can be hard facing that needs some engine modifications but at least the movements and the avatars could be more less stiff i dont know htheir walking annimation look so unnatural:S
thats all thank you 😀 and best regards
I really think that this should put to rest most of the doom-sayers…..or maybe not!
But it please me and I really think that ‘taking a year off’ is a very good strategy in today MMO market…its a time of flux and lets see what come out of the mix…I think quality will all ways out win new content (OK quality new content is good too…LOL)
Good blog article here: http://tagn.wordpress.com/2014/01/13/and-what-of-middle-earth/
This is terrific news! LOTRO 4eva! Now where’s my Super-Deluxe Hobbit Hole w/ cheese? (now with 300% more furniture hooks!) ;-p