[Updated] Lord of the Rings Online F2P launch date announced

The Turbine crew has been preparing for The Lord of the Rings Online to go free-to-play since the announcement in June, and players have been very interested in a launch date.

"This fall" has been the only answer for a while, as developers said they wanted to make sure the game was completely ready before committing to a date. They seem to be pretty certain now, as the announcement of a September 10th launch date came from Turbine early this morning.

Executive Producer Kate Paiz gives plenty of credit to the beta testers: "Our LOTRO beta program has been a huge success and we want to thank all of our players who worked with us to get the game ready for launch."

[Update: Current and former subscribers can access the game two days early, on September 8th.]