Turbine confirms LOTRO Volume III and Riders of Rohan

In an exclusive interview with GamerZines, Turbine has today confirmed that Volume III of Lord of the Rings Online will be released in early 2010.

Written by Dave Taylor, 09 October 2009

Rather than starting a new Volume and a new Epic story line with an expansion pack, Siege of Mirkwood will conclude the current Volume II and Volume III will be started via a free content update out early in the new year instead.

Adam Mersky, PR Manager at Turbien told us: "Volume III will kick off with our first content update of 2010. With our expansion this year we've changed the model; you can still expect to receive regular (free) content updates, but they may not map directly to the launch of a new Epic Story. The story will progress and proceed!"

He then went on to confirm the existence Riders of Rohan, but it appears that this will be a further expansion and not necessarily the name for Volume III, saying "Regarding Rohan, we aren't talking specifics yet about our next expansion. Stay tuned for more info next year!"

MMOZine Issue 17 For our latest Lord of the Rings coverage, click here to download MMOZine Issue 17 for free.It's heartening to see that LOTRO will continue to get free content updates, given the support in terms of content for Volume II has been fairly small. The idea of changing the way updates work is certainly new, meaning that free updates could be considered more major than before, but to have Epic storylines introduced to level capped characters may feel a little odd, although all the Books so far have continued Epic storylines so players may accept it without complaint.

It seems clear that Rohan is the planned next expansion after Mirkwood, so it will be interesting to see how the Epic storyline and free content updates lead us there.

Update: Since this story has hit the internet we have been contacted by Turbine and they have asked us to add the following statement:

"Siege of Mirkwood will arrive in December and will mark the conclusion of Volume II of LOTRO's epic story. We will be kicking off Volume III in our first update of 2010. The story incorrectly presumed that Volume III is called Riders of Rohan. Beyond the fact that Volume III will begin with our next update, we have not released any more details about our plans for the road ahead and we will do so when the time is right."

Lord of the Rings coverage available in MMOZine Issue 17 - click here to download it for free!

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