Turbine Software, developers of the Lord of the Rings Online, announced today that the game is going Free2Play coming this Fall. I touched on this subject last year & even predicted that this game, in particular, was headed down this path in business models. You can signup for the beta which will give you a taste of what the game is all about. As someone who played this game in closed beta & a bit after release, I can tell you that it's a really great PvE game with tons of content which really does justice to the Lord of the Rings franchise in that it really stays close to the lore of the 2nd best-selling book series of all time (only the Bible has sold more copies).

But fans of the game, books, movies & franchise fear not! Going Free2Play does not mean the franchise is dying. Quite the opposite. This is not Turbine Software's first rodeo. They successfully did the same thing with Dungeons & Dragons Online last year. The Free2Play business model is really gaining steam as more & more companies, especially video game developers, are embracing "Freemiums." Companies like Aeria Games, Gamigo and gPotato (to name but a few) are turning Free2Play into quite the successful business model. And we have not even begun to discuss how successful and popular those free games that are available on social networking sites have become.

We are even starting to see variants. For as long as I can remember in the video game space, game developers & publishers have offered free demos of their games. As long as you have the demo installed, you can play it in its limited form, it's just a "taste test," after all. With MMOs, there is usually a twist in that you are given a trial account which is limited to 7, 10 or 14 days of online play. Earlier this year, EA Mythic, developers of the popular Warhammer Online, introduced a hybrid to Free2Play. It became the first for-pay MMO to concurrently offer a free endless trial in that it is not limited to a set number of days that it can be played online. It's a free trial, forever! Sure there's a limit, you're only allowed to reach level 10 & renown rank 10 (max is level 40, renown rank 80) & are confined to 2 maps, but you are still afforded the chance to participate in scenarios, do quests & engage in RvR (realm vs. realm, which is Warhammer-speak for PvP which is the focus of the online game). While it can produce issues like gold sellers spamming their services in region chat, it's nice to see game developers taking fresh approaches to place their games in front of fresh eyes.

It seems that as I mentioned last year, this is a business model that is here to stay.