Local Best Buy can’t fill all Lord of the Rings presells

Today was the official launch of Lord of the Rings: Shadows of Angmar. Those who paid $10 for the presell were able to hit the stores and drop $49.99 for the regular version or $59.99 for the special edition which comes with the following additional benefits:

• exclusive in-game item: The Glass of Aglarel is used to increase hope to aid in your battle agianst the evil effects of Dread
• Beyond the Shadows - Making of the game DVD. Shows how the Books of J.R.R Tolkien were used by the designers to create the game
• Lord of the Rings Online game soundtrack which includes the in-game sounds and music of Rivendell, Bree, Thorin’s Hall, Angmar and Shire
• Map of Middle Earth
• Full color special edition manual
• Free 10-day buddy key to get your friends a 10 day sample
• 30 consecutive days of FREE play
• Lord of the Rings online DVD-ROM

Here’s what the whole spread looks like which, in my opinion, is well worth the extra 10 bones:

To my surprise our local Best Buy in Puyallup, WA (98375) informed us they didn’t have enough games to fill all their presell orders. This made me feel a little guilty for buying two, but hey we paid for the presells. We not only received the $10 we paid for the presell back for each copy but an additional $10 Best Buy gift certificate ($20 total) for our future purchase. Sweet deal. As founders we’re also going to receive $9.99/month special pricing OR a $199 lifetime upgrade. As I said in a prior post, I think this launch strategy for an MMORPG is solid.

We haven’t installed either of the full games yet because there are still five free days left over from the open beta. I noticed the following message when logging in this evening:

Welcome to The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar! We’ve lifted the level cap, so our players can now enjoy all levels in Middle-earth!

Woohoo, it’s on! Here’s a screenshot of something else that surprised me:

In a mere two months — June 2007 — a free content update called Shores of Evendim is coming with the following new features:

• discover the land of Evendim
• fight 9 new monsters
• explore over 60 new quests
• equip collectible armor sets
• raid the Battle for Helegrod
• upgrade your music system (!)

I remain impressed with the beta to launch for this game. I’m strongly considering doing at least one of the lifetime subscriptions. Over the weekend I bought The Lord of the Rings trilogy and started watching the first film. I’ll cover the movies another day and I’m probably among the last reading this that haven’t seen the movies already. Game on!

Read more VTOR posts on Lord of the Rings.