Middle-Earth Online Delayed + Interviews

Vivendi Universal Games and Turbine Entertainment have announced that Middle-Earth Online will not be released until 2005. To learn more about this decision, both IGN PC and GameSpy talked with producer Chris Taylor to learn why. An excerpt from GameSpy's article to follow:
Taylor was fully aware of what a decision like this entailed. "Believe me, we looked at all our schedules, checked out where our playtesting was, looked at how much content had been completed and consulted a great deal with Turbine (the game's developer)." A major sticking point could have been Tolkien Enterprises, the company set up to administer the Lord of the Rings license. Licenses as high-profile and lucrative as Tolkien are very carefully administered and release schedules for products are often coordinated to coincide with the needs of many different licensees. According to Taylor, though, Tolkien Enterprises administers the license with an eye toward the long term health of the franchise, not just the short term bottom-line. "Tolkien Enterprises has been great to work with." Taylor said, "They wanted to do what was best for the game and the license."