Turbine and Midway have finally nailed down a launch date for The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar, today announcing that the highly-anticipated MMORPG based on J.R.R. Tolkien’ classic novel trilogy will ship on April 24th this year. Along with the release date announcement, the two companies also unveiled a “revolutionary” pre-order Founder’s Program for the game.
Under this Founder’s Program, those who pre-order will be rewarded with a special $9.99 monthly subscription plan (presumably discounted from the genre standard $14.99 that those who don’t pre-order will likely have to pay), early access to the game’s Open Beta set to begin on March 30th, character roll-over from the beta testing to the final game, and two unique in-game items: the Enchanted Cloak of Regeneration and the Ring of Agility. In addition to the $9.99 monthly subscription plan, Founder’s will also have the option to purchase a Lifetime Membership for $199.
This pre-order program will begin on February 1st and will be offered for a limited time until the commercial launch of the game. While on the subject, be sure to check out our recent Lord of the Rings Online media blowout for four gameplay videos and a ton of new screenshots.
Matt Litten is the full-time editor and owner of VGBlogger.com. He is responsible for maintaining the day to day operation of the site, editing all staff content before it is published, and contributing regular news, reviews, previews and other articles.
Matt landed his first gig in the video game review business writing for the now-defunct website BonusStage.com. After the sad and untimely close of BonusStage, the former staff went on to found VGBlogger.com. After a short stint as US Site Manager for AceGamez, Matt assumed full ownership over VGBlogger, and to this day he is dedicated to making it one of the top video game blogs in all the blogosphere.
Matt is a fair-minded reviewer and lover of games of all platforms and types, big or small, hyped or niche, big-budget or indie. But that doesn't mean he will let poor games slide without a good thrashing when necessary! 
