New LOTR-based MMO

[Hephburz-2]

No one but ssg and previously turbine/wb know what the license cost. You can say its a non issue sure and they can to but in order for game to operate the need a license which requires money to renew/buy. A new lotr mmo is a great thing for competition. Maybe it will make ssg be competitive again and produce quality work outside of store and loot boxes. Or they can do nothing and the new lotr mmo turns out to be great and they lose players. So yes your right license is a non issue as long as they produce money to keep it.

Given the price of the recent mordor expansion, which by the way I know plenty of people who whacked out the full $140 price for it + the fact that which has already been mentioned that community numbers seem to be stabilising. PLUS they wouldn't be giving us more lootboxes/keys if they clearly weren't making money off of it. I think the game is doing fine when it comes to actually making money.

And has already been stipulated this game is 2-3 years away - I don't think SSG got anything to worry about it personally lol.

[Lord.Funk]

My first reaction is not interested.

However that is based on me thinking it will be more like action based combat like BDO, alot of flashy particle effcets, possibly anime inspired over the top armour and character design like GW2 and such. I prefer tab target and skillbars so I can have many skills to chose from and tactics with timing cooldowns and such rather than simply reply on fast reflexes and *boom* *bam* *crash*. However if they go for a more classic look in art design and a classic tested and tried tab target system then I might change my mind. Still it will be Free To Pay...ehhh...I mean play so that will not be an improvement. Probably heavily monetized as F2P from the start and they need to bring in the money for the license as well as initial development time somehow. At least LoTRO had it's initial time of subscriptions to pay for all that.

They lost me at "free-to-play". . .

Yup. Pretty much the same along with all the above I mentioned (which of course is pure specualtions on my part as far as design and art, but based on what most mmo's these days seem to go towards, which is not to my liking). I haven't see one MMO in the recent years that have even remotely peaked my interest after having seen some gameplay, art-style work and interviews etc. They are all opposite of what I enjoy. The closest would be Ashes Of Creation but even that seem to get many elements I do not like.

MMO RPG's have gone down the route that strategy games did in the early/mid 2000's. All went Real Time Combat and I hardly played any for years and years. Then a since few years back it seems Turn Based is making a comback and I play Strategy now again. Same as I will not play Action Combat MMO RPG's, I'll stick to tab target as long as they exist. If none exist I will play other types of games until they return.

[Hallandil]

8+ years down the line and it is hilarious to see people still focusing on the license issue.

I'm waiting for someone to bring out the old classics like 'their license expires in a year, the game is over' or 'why haven't they renewed the license yet' etc. etc.

I don't know how many times this issue has appeared on the forums or in-game and every, EVERY, single time it has these nay/doom-sayers have been proved to be just that, sayers, there is no truth to what they speak and the dev team including our community manager have said COUNTLESS times, the license is a NON-issue. PLEASE stop focusing on it.

As to how another Middle-Earth centric MMO game could possibly exist, please let me direct you to this entire list of currently released Lotr games, by various different companies; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle...in_video_games - never before has their been a licensing conflict, and I seriously doubt there to be one now.

None of the games are direct competitors. LOTRO and this Athlon title are same IP, same genre... i.e. directly competing.

Pretty sure most are concerned if MEE have even given a license outright over “conflict of interest” or w/e to Athlon Games. As far as I found in the document being passed around on news sites, there’s no mention of whether or not they have secured the rights yet (Athlon, not SSG).

[Cordovan]

The news will not have any impact on our development plans or licensing. We always welcome competition, and wish them the best of luck!

[Fealhach]

What it won't have are the unique characters, settings and stories created for Lotro by Turbine/SSG that keep me playing. So they better have some real Lore Masters lined up who know their stuff.

There's room for both, Lotro is it's own thing.

As for Free to Play. Pfft! Good luck with that. You think they're making that for nothing?

Cheers

[Geventh]

The news will not have any impact on our development plans or licensing. We always welcome competition, and wish them the best of luck!

Good luck to SSG, may this *competition* provide you enough pressure to deliver quality content.

[mykidstjz]

Keywording..."Leading up to the events of LOTR...it will be different. And of course, SSG will not worry about it until it's too late.

[Emperor-King]

The news will not have any impact on our development plans or licensing. We always welcome competition, and wish them the best of luck!

I'm very glad to hear that and thanks for the update. I hope LOTRO remains around for a very long time. I was very worried after reading the following article, so you may want to get your Marketing or PR team out ahead of articles like this.

https://www.game-debate.com/news/257...in-development

"The other Lord of the Rings Online MMORPG is still creaking on after all these years as well, although no further content will be released."

[Skyfoot]

We always welcome competition...

Get rid of the loot-boxes, spend resources to optimize the game and do extensive class balance work or you won't stand a chance.

[Nymphonic]

The news will not have any impact on our development plans or licensing. We always welcome competition, and wish them the best of luck!

That’s what I figured. It might not even be competition, especially if it’s not very strict on adhering to the lore.

For example, last night I was in Edoras admiring the barrows, and I have a feeling that I’m not the only one that wants stuff like that in my LOTR gameplay.

[maartena]

Good luck to SSG, may this *competition* provide you enough pressure to deliver quality content.

Depending on how popular the game becomes, SSG might have to implement some things/features that this new game will bring. It's content seems to be geared to events that happened some time before the events of the Fellowship of the Ring, which of course is where this game is mainly set.

That said, we have seen a 100 "we are going to make this great MMO" announcements over the last few years, and 99 of them failed miserably. It's really tough to compete, and to bring a game to the world that will immediately capture enough players to keep playing. Lotro has the luck that it was launched when its only true major competitor was WoW, and perhaps the remains of Everquest and Everquest II, but since then..... we're seeing like a new MMORPG release every MONTH or so, and most of them last till the funding of their servers runs out with no real income potential.

Will this be different because it is supported by a new TV franchise? Maybe.... but other MMO's based on TV series such as "Defiance" have not been particularly successful. Star Trek Online however has been, and IS successful, and draws from an almost unlimited amount of written, films and televised works. So.... it COULD be a success, but only if the producers of the game don't muck it up and create a sub-par game.

[maartena]

Get rid of the loot-boxes, spend resources to optimize the game and do extensive class balance work or you won't stand a chance.

It's going to be YEARS before we will even see a beta release of the new game..... and its going to be very likely - looking at most new game realeases nowadays - that some form of lootbox might exist in the new game. We also have very little details about it, but seeing how slow MMO's have been developing (including Lotro itself, which took 2-3 years to come up with something that was beta-worthy in 2006 or so...) I wouldn't worry about this game changing things anytime soon.

Yeah, lootboxes kind of suck.... but at least, unlike many other games, you can still get the keys 100% for free in Lotro, provided you have the expansion/quest pack to do the dailies. It all depends on whether you are in a hurry, or don't mind just playing the game and taking the key slivers as they come.

[Skyfoot]

Get rid of the loot-boxes, spend resources to optimize the game and do extensive class balance work or you won't stand a chance.

I wouldn't worry about this game changing things anytime soon.

It shouldn't take the threat of actual competition (remember, Turbine/SSG once had "exclusive" MMORPG rights--no longer) to get them to do things they should be doing already.

"You may delay, but time will not"

[Belnavar]

It's not quite "LOTR-based," though.

"Athlon Games is working with a partner developer to create an online game set in the world of Middle-earth™ at a time long before the events of The Lord of the Rings, exploring lands, people and creatures never seen before by fans of the Tolkien universe."

Source: http://leyoutech.com.hk/athlon-games-inc

That kind of suggests something like The Silmarillion (and since Christopher Tolkien resigned from the Tolkien Estate in 2017, those rights could genuinely be available now). In other words, it likely will have zero impact on LOTRO's license.

While on one hand this is a competing product, it could also renew interest in LOTRO, especially for those looking to explore the Lord of the Rings timeline (and experience a game with 11+ years of content).

-Bel

[Hurin]

Yeah, lootboxes kind of suck.... but at least, unlike many other games, you can still get the keys 100% for free in Lotro, provided you have the expansion/quest pack to do the dailies. It all depends on whether you are in a hurry, or don't mind just playing the game and taking the key slivers as they come.

On the other hand, for a lot of people, it "all depends" on whether they want to play a game where it's reasonable to even suspect that the content of the game is being designed to annoy or cause despair among its players in order to drive them to spend cash to avoid actually playing it. Back in the day, you had a generally good feeling about playing an MMO. You might feel things were grindy, or that it could be more fun. But you didn't suspect you were being manipulated or purposefully demoralized so that you'd hand over cash. Or, perhaps more to the point, at many times, you feel like you're one of the last few around who are not giving up and buying your way around "content". . . and your game experience is being made all the more arduous for that very reason.

--H

[NeoBasilisk]

It's not quite "LOTR-based," though.



That kind of suggests something like The Silmarillion (and since Christopher Tolkien resigned from the Tolkien Estate in 2017, those rights could genuinely be available now). In other words, it likely will have zero impact on LOTRO's license.

While on one hand this is a competing product, it could also renew interest in LOTRO, especially for those looking to explore the Lord of the Rings timeline (and experience a game with 11+ years of content).

-Bel

Considering that they specifically mention the Amazon series, and we know that that is set in the third age (the first season at least), I highly doubt this MMO will be set any earlier than that. Not that I would mind of course. But let's be real here.

[Saintjoan]

Keywording..."Leading up to the events of LOTR...it will be different. And of course, SSG will not worry about it until it's too late.

Events leading up to the events of LOTR, is not LOTR. It won't be a remake of Lotro, but stories leading up to LOTR.. SSG doesn't have to worry about a game that leads up to the events of LOTR. Lotro is the events of Lotro, not the events leading up to LOTR.

[Comstrike]

The holding company doing this is largely unproven, based in Hong Kong, and seems hardly more than a low-bidder aiming to make a promotional tie-in to the new Amazon Series.

And the connection to the new series being there, this could prove to be little more than an MOBA with movie/TV series images.

However competition is good. Now about pushing faster with a 64 bit client and a graphics revamp after all the third-party plugins are replaced......

[Saintjoan]

And has already been stipulated this game is 2-3 years away - I don't think SSG got anything to worry about it personally lol.

My thoughts exactly. SSG doesn't have to worry about a game that is a few years away..

[Forohir]

The news will not have any impact on our development plans or licensing. We always welcome competition, and wish them the best of luck!

Wonderful news Thank you for settling us all down promptly!

[Nexeus0]

I love how anyone is speculating without consider, or give second thought that actually might be a "mobile game", which btw could actually be.

Whether you like LoTRO or not at this current state, this game is well established for many moons already and unless this... "game company" is famous, you know companies like Blizzard, Bungie, Bandai Namco, Square Enix, Microsoft Studios and so on, even IF there's 2 LoTR MMO's in the making I wouldn't worry too much.

- 20 bucks this will be a mobile game.

[miriadel]

if you read the caption of the articles linked, you'll read it is a game for PCs and consoles. how does that make it a mobile game?

https://wccftech.com/new-middle-earth-mmorpg-coming/

[yafga]

I love how anyone is speculating without consider, or give second thought that actually might be a "mobile game", which btw could actually be.

Whether you like LoTRO or not at this current state, this game is well established for many moons already and unless this... "game company" is famous, you know companies like Blizzard, Bungie, Bandai Namco, Square Enix, Microsoft Studios and so on, even IF there's 2 LoTR MMO's in the making I wouldn't worry too much.

- 20 bucks this will be a mobile game.

It's the publisher of the top 3 F2P game on steam(Warframe) This isn't just any publisher.

[Arabani]

As far as I understand the new game will follow the incoming TV-Series. And I bet it will be an action Destiny/Warframe like game with some sort of combat sessions between standing in the main hub/town.

[rodin12]

The idea of a new game if it is a type lotro with 2 race men and elf without hobbits and centred on battle of the first age I am not interested if it is an oriental game type aion but in the world of tolkien with all the races and all the clase I like much the idea


I am experienced in lotro 11 years and in aion 7 and can say that in lotro I was insulted developed a complex discriminated and ill-treated for having a guardian hobbit and that to want to do with had of the game


In aion was received by me helped integrated by all I returned to consider to be person and player with a magician hobbit I come to raider do the whole content and the people love me and estimate me without mattering since it is my player aion I help myself to facing my trauma of lotro and to return to connect to lotro and to do the content of lotro in t2 to finishing the raid that not tape-worm you complete am returning to be person and player in lotro thank you aion

Lotro was my first game for years without obtaining anything now it is my second alone game I connect approximately 6 hours a day but I am managing to play indeed thank you aion that gave to me confidence if the new game is oriental and free of tradition welcome it is if it is another closed tradition I do not even try it