No gamer ever enjoys a delay, but many of us begrudgingly accept them expecting the title to be better for it. Turbine Entertainment, makers of Lord of the Rings Online does not have a history of this activity, so the delay of Riders of Rohan was unexpected. However, at the time of the delay the developer promised that the follow-up instance content would make its 2012 release, so as not to stall the entire content plan. At least, not entirely.
Instead of delaying everything to the expected release in February 2013, those forging their own stories alongside the Fellowship can experience the opening sequences of RoR instance content. Later this week, Update 9: Against the Shadow will debut on the Bullroarer test server. Included in the updates and bug fixes will be three instances:
- Iorbar’s Peak (Misty Mountains / Stone Giants-3-man)
- Webs of the Scuttledells (Mirkwood 3-man)
- Seat of the Great Goblin (Goblintown 3-man)
Community Manager Rick Heaton has highlighted that purchasers of RoR will receive the entire instance cluster for free (as expected). The aforementioned group is expected to be live in December. Hit the jump for details on Part 2 and its release date.
Turbine Entertainment is expecting to ship the second lot, which contains full group and raid content, in February 2013. The second cluster include four distractions:
- The Bells of Dale (6-man)
- Flight to the Lonely Mountain (12-man; single boss)
- The Fires of Smaug (12-man; single boss)
- The Battle for Erebor (12-man; single boss)
How do you feel about the delay? Worried, happy, indifferent? There was no mention of the recent layoffs having an impact on development.