Turbine sends word this morning that its flagship MMO, The Lord of the Rings Online, will move to a free-with-microtransactions model this fall. This should come as a surprise to nobody, as the company tripled its revenue from Dungeons & Dragons Online when it made the same transition last year.
LOTRO will follow a similar model to the one DDO adopted in its free-to-play rebirth. Turbine says that players will be able to follow the story all the way to the level cap without spending a dime, and plans to offer ancillary enhancements and metagame fluff through the cash shop. By dropping a few bills, you can get access to more character slots, cosmetic enhancements, expanded content, and consumables.
As in DDO, players can purchase a traditional monthly subscription for "VIP" access. This gains you a slew of perks, including unlocking all bonus expanded content and a monthly stipend of points to spend in the cash shop above and beyond your VIP goodies.
The Lord of the Rings Online wasn't a smash success, but it reviewed well and never suffered the massive churn that depopulated Age of Conan and Warhammer Online scant months after launch. As much as it pains me to see anything that gives gameplay benefits available for cash money, including seemingly innocuous stuff like experience-boosting or downtime-reducing potions, I can't fault Turbine for making a bold move to breathe new life into an aging game.
