[Updated] Lord of the Rings Online going free-to-play this fall

What makes you think that? DDO is doing really well for a F2P. Turbine is likely trying to open up a new revenue base, keeping its existing subscribers, and bringing in new ones on the RMT model.

I'd say it's more a matter of Turbine making mad profit from their other f2p game.

LOTRO is one of the more/most popular MMOs currently on the market. And with the crazy success DDO is having and with all the other really popular F2P games such as Allods, Runes of Magic and yes even Free Realms, it's only a matter of time before big name companies follow suit.

I'm totally excited for this to happen. I've always wanted to play LoTRO for more than the trial period(which i've done 3 times already) but couldn't quite spend an additional $15 a month for another MMO.

LOTRO is doing fine, however, DDO's business model is absolutely GENIUS. They provide an incredible game with fair marketing transactions. The basis of their model is, "Give the player a great experience for free that tantalizes them so much that it's hard NOT to be swayed to pay for some content." I mean I honestly respect Turbine's effort in DDO so much I really want to support them and buy some stuff....eventhough you can still get a rewarding experience without purchasing anything.

Hope Warhammer Online will follow soon!

This is great news for LOTRO, for Turbine, and for me :)
I think the only real danger here is that DDO will lose a great many players. LOTRO has, obviously, a fantastic storyline, wide open zones, and great graphics, all of which is somewhat lacking in DDO, IMHO

Like others have said, this is going to make it so they keep most of the subscribers they have now (people still will pay to get the full features), while adding in a ton of people who will start to play for free and then will be tempted to buy various things along the way. It's really very smart of them to do and will help them get a lot more revenue. It's not about the game failing, it's not - it has enough subscribers to keep going. It's about making even more money and bringing in even more people. It's a smart move.

I just recently stopped playing LOTRO, so this news was odd to me, as the game seemed to still have quite a lively playerbase of subscribers willing to pay a monthly fee.
I might go back on occasion, knowing that it'll be free and I won't have to pay up front to see how the game is doing. Sadly, I require a lot of "world feel" to my MMO's. By that I mean, the world has to keep its grand scale feeling in order to keep me interested, and with LOTRO... the more I played, the more the world felt like it was shrinking. By the time I rolled my second character, I felt like I knew all the nooks and crannies of the starting areas and just didn't want to do it again.
Great enviornments, great storytelling... not enough secret places, crazy random fun, and off road adventures (for me).

Agreed. I'm also a Landroval player. It is a special place. Here's hoping it will maintain some of its essence in the wake of so many new people.

You'll still earn points. In fact, as a current subscriber you'll earn points every month effective immediately, even before the game goes f2p this fall. Click the link above about the Loyalty Rewards Program.

Even lifetime subs are handled very fairly -- in fact they have the potential to have the second most accumulated points at the time f2p goes live (only behind Founders).

Although it doesn't say, I also suspect that people with lifetime subs will continue to be treated as VIP after the f2p launches. So those of us with such subs will always have top access. We may even find that major content updates are free as well.

Right, because they thought this up, planned it, and executed it in the last month.

Not having PvMP in free/premium is definitely a mistake. They should at least make it a purchasable option of $5-10 or something, as I would love to be on the F2P model and still get PvMP. You can bet your ass that if I get in the beta, this will be the first thing I complain about.