Warner Bros and Turbine have announced that Lord of the Rings Online will go free to play on September 10.

Once it’s made avail­able for all, play­ers will be able to down­load and play for free, along with being able to pur­chase expan­sions, quest packs, items and account ser­vices a la carte from the new LOTRO store.

“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,” said Kate Paiz, Executive Producer of LOTRO, Turbine.

“Our unique pri­cing model has revo­lu­tion­ized the industry and start­ing in September, play­ers will be able to choose how they pay for and play one of the world’s best online games and we can’t wait to wel­come mil­lions of new play­ers to Middle-earth!”

More details below,

• Free means Free! – Players will down­load LOTRO by vis­it­ing www.lotro.com and join with mil­lions of other adven­tur­ers as they explore the most com­plete and authen­tic recre­ation of Middle-earth ever cre­ated and par­ti­cip­ate in LOTRO’s award-winning epic story up to level 50 for free.

• Visit the new LOTRO Store! - The LOTRO Store is loaded with thou­sands of con­veni­ence items as well as expan­sion packs, premium con­tent, addi­tional char­ac­ter slots, potions, char­ac­ter cus­tom­iz­a­tion and more! The LOTRO Store is seam­lessly integ­rated into the game and lets the player identify new and excit­ing ways to enhance and cus­tom­ize their exper­i­ence using points which can be pur­chased in the store or earned through game­play.

• Be a LOTRO VIP! – Players who elect to become a LOTRO VIP will have unlim­ited access to all premium con­tent, receive pri­or­ity server access, 5 char­ac­ter slots, a shared bank slot, and a monthly allot­ment of points to spend in the new LOTRO Store.

Now is the per­fect time to drop in and check out Middle Earth, with the game being exten­ded into Enedwaith this fall.