As a "tie in" to Stinging Valvets other thread, this has gotten me baffled recently . Some of you probably already know it, but for those, like me, who didn't noticed.

The deal between EA and New Line Cinema ended, which has, among others, the result that EAs LoTR games can no longer be sold by EA. Those are really solid games and afaik the online community is still strong.

This is another excellent example on how shitty licensing impaires the gaming community.

Rise of the Witch-King isn't even six years old!

It's the same reason why we'll never see the Need for Speed games on GOG, as much of a shame as it is.

So, yeah, in the moral sense of the word, all of the EA LOTR games are effectively abandonware. I think we can generally be grateful that BoMM and the actual movie tie-ins are available on disc and are DRM-free, otherwise they would have been lost for good. What we need is for EA to take someone posting the game for download to court and then for questions to be raised in court about whether EA has really been deprived of income...

That should be fun.

Which is why game companies ignore abandonware sites.

That arguement is never used in courts anyway. All piracy cases always use "legal fees" and a "Strafbewehrte Unterlassungserklärung". The "lost sales" arguement was abandoned in the very first anti-piracy cases by the music industry as you simply can't prove it, even with a new title.

What companies could get would a cut of the income that abandonware sites generate through adverts. But I hardly think that this justifies the legal costs involved.

Most companies don't move against Abandonware sites, because the actual legal costs are in no way worth what might be gained. And many companies have realized that they actually get some decent free advertisement out of this.

I have bought the games, and I have "downloaded" versions as well, but what would really want is to have them on GOG. They are some of the best RTS games ever made.

This looks like abandonware at the moment, but doesn't that mean that New Line or WB can repackage them and sell as their own now?

I would guess that the rights to the games itself (engine, graphics, etc.) are still with EA. Unless on one of them makes a new deal, the EA LotR games are in "Licencing Hell"

I'd always wondered where these games went to and why they didn't appear online anywhere for purchase.

I wonder if when the hobbit comes out if there will be any chance of EA getting a new licence in place for these - or even if they'll try. Sadly the costs of a new licensing deal might be more than they think they could get for them being sold on the cheap .

It's not abandonware, New Line probably holds the franchise under its clammy grip so nobody can do anything with it.

It cannot be bought anywhere legally, which very much fits my bill of abandonware.

I guess no new licenses are going to be given since Warner Bros has a big game division that they are beefing up some years now.

Why outsource your stuff, when you yourself can make some more money of it?

Oh you can still buy it legally if anyone has any stock of the game. Problem is its now into the age where any prices are into the silly monies (£100+). So getting hold of a legal copy means you've either got to get a second hand, find a rare new copy that isn't being sold stupidly high (in the UK that basically means heading to PC world - I don't think anywhere else on the highstreet stocks older games now - even Game has dropped all the soldout software shelves from their shops now - and many independents don't even stock PC games at all)

You can still find used copies, just not new ones. The properties are still owned by companies that still exist. Not abandonware.

It is abandonware, technically. Abandonware does not mean "freely available". Nor is it legal. All it means is that nobody is exploiting the game commercially anymore, and so you probably won't get into any trouble for downloading a copy of it from the internet.