It’s official: The Lord of the Rings: Living Card Game will be available in Early Access on August 28, 2018!
Since we first announced The Lord of the Rings: Living Card Game, it has had some dramatic changes; visual overhauls, tweaked and refined mechanics, new cards, a revised economy, and more. Many of you have joined us on this journey since the beginning, and we’ve enjoyed having you with us, watching the game grow and flourish. Still, there’s been one question on everyone’s mind: When can I play it?
The answer is this August. The Lord of the Rings: Living Card Game will enter into Early Access. During that time, we’ll release the first campaign, Adventures in Mirkwood; the core set starter cards, featuring 42 player cards and 4 Heroes, one of each Sphere; a set of 21 unlockable Valor cards; tons of cosmetics, and more. Throughout Early Access, we’ll add even more content, too, so keep an eye here for future announcements.
Early Access is a chance for us to focus on balancing and refining stats and mechanics, adding new features, and putting community-first tools in the hands of the players. For more details on what to expect during Early Access, head on over to our roadmap, and if there’s anything you feel is missing on there, let us know.
Early Access will last about 3 to 5 months, and the game will be released as a free-to-play title after that, with a robust schedule of updates to follow.
We’re pushing our release past Quarter 2 in order to make sure we do this right. This is FFI’s first-ever title. Early Access is many things to many developers and players. To us, it is a time to balance the game and elevate it from good to great. We strongly feel we have reached that moment now, and we’re ready to release the game to you. But we’ll need your help.
Player feedback has been incredibly important to us during the development stages. Community engagement has always been core to Fantasy Flight Interactive’s values, and we intend to carry that tradition through during Early Access, as well. The EA period is our chance to open up the conversation around The Lord of the Rings: Living Card Game, and we’re excited for you to join us.
You can expect our community streams to continue on the same schedule: 1 PM Central US time on twitch.tv/ffigames. We’ll continue to bring you gameplay, developer updates, news, and more. If you haven’t joined us there yet, come check it out! We love having new voices in chat.
We also have some other very exciting news to share. The Lord of the Rings: Living Card Game is getting a special edition tie-in with its tabletop cousin, The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game!
This limited edition bundle is both a celebration of the history of the tabletop game and a herald of great things to come for the digital title. In it, you’ll get:
• Early Access Code for The Lord of the Rings: Living Card Game
• The Lord of the Rings: Living Card Game Starter Set
• The Shire Founder’s Pack
• The Steward of Gondor Founder’s Pack
• The Istari Founder’s Pack
• The Special Edition 2-Player Starter for The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game
• A brass replica of “The One Ring”
• An exclusive physical playmat
• 4 4x6 character art prints depicting the Core Set Heroes in The Lord of the Rings: Living Card Game
• 2 exclusive in-game avatars
• 2 exclusive in-game player tags
• An exclusive in-game card back
You can read more about the special-edition starter over at Fantasy Flight Games’ site.
Preorders are open now and are limited, so hurry!
Lastly, we wanted to take the opportunity here to thank you all for joining us on this ride to release. From the community streams to the Steam forums to social media and beyond, players have time and time again expressed their passion and excitement. We can’t wait to share what we have in store.
Fantasy Flight Interactive