LotRO Fans Get Reassurance From Middle-earth Enterprises

Lord of the Rings Online fans have faced this question before: Will our game shut down? In days past, it was the nebulous threat of Turbine's/Standing Stone Games' contract with Middle-earth Enterprises not being renewed, but that seems to have abated, with the game surviving 2017 -- the initial end date of the contract -- and beyond.

More recently, it's the new title by Athlon Games set in Tolkien's universe that has players worried. Despite assurances to the contrary from SSG, the possibility always exists that the new game could supplant the old, in much the same way that Star Wars: The Old Republic pushed out Star Wars: Galaxies, despite similar assurances.

One player was concerned enough to send a letter to Middle-earth Enterprises, holder of the Lord of the Rings IP, to beseech them not to terminate LotRO when the new game went live. Surprisingly, he got a personal response from someone at MeE who claimed to be a LotRO player and said that both games would indeed co-exist, for Middle-earth gamers old and new to enjoy.

The original letter and its response are lengthy, so we'll provide an image here. You can see the original post and comment thread for yourself on Reddit.

The usual caveat -- that things can change, especially if the people in charge of the money (who we'd assume aren't answering fan mail) change their minds -- but this at least serves as an additional ray of hope for LotRO fans that they'll still have their version of Middle-earth to trek through for years to come.