The June Lord of the Rings Online newsletter has been sent out, and there are a ton of goodies in there for current and past players!

The newest Mines of Moria mini-game is now avaiable on the official expansion site. Eleventy-Seven Morsels is a hobbit's dream game!

Special anniversary pricing is also available.

    * Become a LOTRO Lifetime Member for $199 and never pay a monthly fee again
    * Choose any multi-month plan (90-days or longer) and lock in a monthly price of $9.99 per month

You can get more info on both of these offerings from this page.

There's a reminder about the story we ran yesterday regarding the newest wallpaper available.

LotRO is now on Facebook as well!

Have you visited LOTRO on Facebook? Become a fan today and get updates from LOTRO on Facebook, share your LOTRO screenshots and videos with other fans, talk on the discussion boards, and meet new friends!

To read the entire newsletter, click this link for the URL version!

The 3rd Quarter LotRO calendar wallpaper is now available on the offical site!

The June-September 2008 Calendars are now available on our Wallpapers page, including a never-before-seen image from Book 14: The Ring-forges of Eregion! Enjoy the summer!! Enjoy the summer!

Now if I could just not have the trademark and legal jumbo on the bottom of my desktop!

Patience has this note for those of us who missed the download opportunity for the LotRO soundtrack.

The Turbine Download Manager Beta server has been taken offline in preparation for the next stage of beta. If you didn't get a chance to download the soundtrack yet, we've made it available via torrent. Thanks for your feedback on the Download Manager, and we hope you're enjoying the music!

If you've never played LotRO before and have been considering it, try the music out first and see if it moves you!  It's an amazing collection that truly captures the feel of Middle Earth!

Codemasters Online has announced that they will be partnering woth Partnertrans to continue to provide localization for the Lord of the Rings Online expansion, Mines of Moria. Turbine will continue to publish the series stateside, while Codemasters Online and Partnertrans will continue to take charge of keeping the franchise localized to the folks in various regions of Europe.

Codemasters Online, the European distributor and operator of The Lord of the Rings Online™ and Partnertrans, one of the leading interactive entertainment localization agencies, are pleased to announce that they have renewed their partnership for the forthcoming localization of The Lord of the Rings Online™: Mines of Moria™, the recently announced expansion pack for the internationally recognized and highly successful MMORPG.

“In today's challenging market, reliability and professionalism in localisation are paramount. Partnertrans consistently deliver on both counts,” commented Jim Brown, Director CO Studio. “The localisation of The Lord of the Rings Online has received rave reviews in both France and Germany and has further strengthened the already tremendous success of the title worldwide.”

Read the press release here.

The development team for the Lord of the Rings Online has added another creature to their ongoing "Creatures/Characters of Middle-earth" series. Who gets the spotlight today? Gaunt-lords!:

In the First Age, Morgoth summoned many fell spirits into his service and twisted countless creatures to his will. Among those were dire creatures called Gaunt-men.

You can read the entire write-up HERE, and HERE at the European website.

Turbine has released a dev diary video of Executive Producer Jeffrey Steefel giving us the rundown of Chapter 13 and all the goodness it brought to us!



Head over to our LotRO forums to discuss your thoughts on the game!

The development team for the Lord of the Rings Online has added another creature to their ongoing "Creatures/Characters of Middle-earth" series. Who gets the spotlight today? Badennas!:

As new housing settlements spring up around the communities of Eriador, agents are needed to make potential residents aware of these new neighbourhoods. One such advocate is Badennas, an Elf who dwells in the community of Duillond in Ered Luin.

You can read the entire write-up HERE, and HERE at the European website.

Codemasters is running a special Fathers Day event for European players!

We are inviting fathers from across the UK to celebrate this year’s Father’s Day in virtual style by taking part in the Father’s Day celebrations set to take place across Middle-earth in The Lord of the Rings Online.

Taking place on June 15th, we will be running a series of in-game Father’s Day events designed to celebrate this special occasion including father and sons' fishing, music and fireworks as well as ad hoc competitions and challenges taking place throughout the day. Fathers are invited to attend these events with their sons and daughters and take part in the online festivities with the thousands of other players in Middle-earth.

If you’re interested in taking part in these events then look out for the in-game announcements throughout the day on the English-speaking servers. As a special treat the community team’s Liquilla, Satine, Faya and Amaurea will also be wandering around Middle-earth enjoying the festivities and dishing out some trinkets to those encountered! So keep your eyes peeled…

See you all in Middle-earth!

No word from Turbine on whether they'll be doing the same, but we'll keep you posted!

With this much financing capital on the way, this can only mean great things in the way of future releases from Turbine.

WESTWOOD, MA -- June 4, 2008 -- Turbine, Inc. today announced that it has raised $40 million in equity financing.  Time Warner Inc. (NYSE: TWX) and GGV Capital, a leader in expansion-stage venture capital investments in the U.S. and China, led the investment along with existing investors, Highland Capital Partners, Polaris Venture Partners, Tudor Ventures and Columbia Capital.  The investment will be used to further accelerate Turbine’s growth as a global leader in online entertainment.  

 

“This is truly an exciting time for Turbine.  The addition of Time Warner, one of the world’s largest media companies, and GGV Capital, one of the financial community’s most sophisticated investors, adds a level of access, perspective and experience to Turbine that is singularly unique in the global online entertainment space,” said Jim Crowley, president and CEO of Turbine, Inc. “Turbine has an extraordinary team, incredible technology and a growing portfolio of games based on some of the most popular brands ever created.  With this funding we are uniquely positioned to change the future of online entertainment as we bring new titles to market, expand the platforms we support and introduce new technologies to sustain self-evolving game worlds.”

The development team for the Lord of the Rings Online has added another creature to their ongoing "Creatures/Characters of Middle-earth" series. Who gets the spotlight today? Dour-root!:

Whether Huorns are trees that have been awakened or Ents that have become treeish is hard to say, but without the guidance of the Ents, they often become wild and dangerous, sometimes even black-hearted. In Agamaur, one such Huorn guards the ways into Garth Agarwen...

You can read the entire write-up HERE, and HERE at the European website.