Thu, Jan 06, 2011 | 21:07 GMT

LOTRO revenue has tripled since going free-to-play, says Turbine

lotro

Turbine has revealed that profits for Lord of the Rings Online have tripled since the game went free-to-play back in September.

Speaking in an interview with TenTonHammer, executive producer Kate Paiz and director of communications Adam Mersky revealed the good news via the site’s latest podcast.

During GDC Online, Turbine announced that both revenue and the player base grew considerably since going F2P, and that over one million new accounts were created, 20 percent of former players had returned, and the game saw a 300 percent increase in concurrent users with a 400 percent increase in active players.

While chatting with TTH, Paiz and Mersky also chatted a bit about Rise of Isengard coming in the later part of 2011, along with a cosmetic system revamp and non-combat pets.

Both chatted with us back in the fall about the possibility of a Rohan expansion in the future, as well as the Battle of Helm’s Deep and what it would take to get mounted combat to work in the game.

If you haven’t played or have been away for a while, now’s the time to come back we reckon.

Thanks, A Casual Stroll to Mordor.

6 comments

Robo_1
06/01/11, 9:24 pm

This seems to be the way most MMO’s are going, now that they’re realising just what a perfect storm of events the success of World Of Warcraft was.

GwynbleiddiuM
06/01/11, 11:30 pm

Well there’s not much of a choice in a mono-poled segment of the industry, while there’s a giant like WoW with perfect user-base, against too many of the same games with no real innovation in comparison. Only too much different games like EVE Online can survive in this zone because they have an user-base with a unique taste for MMO.

They can’t just produce subscribers who are willing to pay 15 bucks a month. This business model failed long ago for many of them. Some of them realized earlier and moved forward with new models while many of them still can’t cope with the fact that for them to succeed is to come up with different plans.

theevilaires
06/01/11, 11:47 pm

but can someone get by, enjoy the free game, and still complete it with all the free items the game provides naturally? Its great either way and square should make the FF online games free like this.

Callum
06/01/11, 11:53 pm

How much of that revenue was you Steph? By bet is 60%.

blackdreamhunk
07/01/11, 12:18 am

now if they had went free to play in the first like guild wars the fan base might have been bigger

Guild Wars 2 ArenaNet Retrospective Trailer [HD]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPau4kG8dAQ&feature=recentf

Stephany Nunneley
07/01/11, 12:50 am

@4 Maybe 40%. Yeah. 40% Damn horses and pretty clothes.