The Lord of the Rings Online Goes Free-to-Play

Current and former subscribers as well as beta testers were able to get a headstart on the 8th, but now the gates of Middle Earth have been opened to all. If you’ve been curious about The Lord of the Rings Online before but were unwilling to part with $15 a month for it, you no longer need to worry about subscription fees. The game has officially gone free-to-play and joins Turbine’s other successful free MMO, Dungeons and Dragons Online.Much like Dungeons and Dragons Online, playing the game itself is free, though certain items are now available through the item shop. Player vs. Player mode (Monster Play) and additional quests are now only available through the shop. Due to the crazy influx of people trying to download the game and play, the official website is having some issues and there’s a queue to log into the servers. To deal with the heavy traffic of new players, Turbine has opened up eight new servers. There will be four new servers for the US, and four for EU.

Unfortunately, those in Europe are going to have to a wait a bit longer for the client to be released. Codemasters is going to be releasing a patch for Europe “later than expected.” To advertise their new move to the subscription/free-to-play hybrid, Turbine has released this brand new commercial which is now airing on G4.