"Traveler Tales has a nice thing going. Take an existing franchise, usually a lucrative one that sells millions, Lego-ize it in a video game (or a series of video games), sit back and watch as you sell and make millions. Of course, it helps that Lego games are usually extraordinarily good. It can be argued, for example, that Traveler Tales is singularly responsible for the best Star Wars games since the Rogue Squadron and Battlefront series died out, and the best Harry Potter games period, via their Lego takes on those universes. Earlier this year, they delivered Lego Batman 2, a loving homage to the DC universe."
The very best LOTR games available right now.
VGChartz's Adam Cartwright: "Ever since the advent of full-game downloads on consoles, it seems the market has slowly been shifting towards a digital future where games are delivered through internet connections rather than physical disks. While the convenience this brings is undeniable, and plenty of gamers have embraced having a stuffed memory card in their Vita, there are major pitfalls that are slowly beginning to show, one of which is that games can be delisted without any prior warning, leaving them lost to time unless you bought them before they disappeared."
From GameWatcher: "LEGO Lord of the Rings delisted from Steam, along with LEGO The Hobbit? That what it certainly looks like, as both of TT Games' Middle-Earth LEGO titles have been pulled with no explanation - and fans are wondering if Activision's Ghostbusters game will be gone next.
It's certainly not the only recent Steam casualty of licenses changing hands, but the weird thing about these is - the Middle-Earth license, like TT Games, is still owned by Warner Bros. So why have these games been delisted?"
The middle earth license may be part of WB, but what about the Lego license? There is also the factor of if Lego and WB can be used together and licensed for Video games in this way. Since other Lord of the Ring games aren't being delisted, I think this might have more to do with the Lego license, or the Lego/Lord of the Rings dual license. Or it was always just a short term agreement to use all the licenses together.
So on and so forth. Licensing can be tricky. Ghostbusters is a solely owned IP, so one's first inclination shouldn't be if another WB owned franchise is due for the axe.
I got both of these for free recently from Humble Bundle. I wonder if that was a way of saying "goodbye" or something.
Another digital game (in this case maybe three) bites the dust forever. Congrats if you have a physical disc or want to get it used somewhere, because you still can!