Two more video games have been lost to the digital abyss of expired contracts. Warner Bros.' Lego: The Lord of the Rings and Lego: The Hobbit have both been delisted from their once available digital storefronts. According to the publisher, neither game is scheduled to be available in the future, so you'll have to get a hold of a physical copy on console, or already own the game digitally if you plan on playing it. Luckily, Lego: The Hobbit was given away for free through the Humble Store last month, allowing for many people to claim it before its delisting. Lego: The Lord of the Rings was developed by Traveller's Tales, and initially released in 2012, for PC. Wii, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3. There were also handheld versions of the game on mobile, DS, and 3DS. Both titles boast user reviews that are positive, with the first having an 82% on Metacritic, and the second having a 72% average score.

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[FAST6191]

Go digital they, forgo the option to resell games they said, it will make things better for the consumer they said...

As ever I continue to have a laugh.

 

[the_randomizer]

Yeah, it is just the most popular fantasy IP of all times. Cmon Warner, just offer these explotation rights for free already!

Gee, that wasn't a sarcastic response at all, keep it up

 

[SS4]

Copyrights is such a poorly implemented concept its ridiculous that it manages to get even worse as time goes by . . .

 

[Sakitoshi]

Well, I can't say that something of value was lost.
Those lego games all play the same and are extremely repetitive. I know, there is people that actually like them, but I find them all boring and uninspired.

 

[the_randomizer]

With bullshit licensing issues like this, I don't blame people for pirating games. I know I would.

 

[FanNintendo]

Got it on Wii HDD and injected on Wii U!

 

[Captain_N]

If you have it in your steam library you can always download it no matter what, even if it's not on the steam store anymore.

Id like to see you download it in 25 years. Not gonna happen my friend. As with all digital purchases you are never buying the content, you are buying the license to use it. You never own anything when buying digital....
And for those archiving steam games on hard drives, you have to remember hard drives loose alittle more then 1% of their magnetic information per year. Even when not used. Its a little fact no one knows.... NAND Flash cells also degrade over time as well even without being written to. The only non expensive solution i use is High quality Bluray-r HTL Discs (inorganic Dye) as well as M-discs.

 

[reddragon105]

This is also a point were retrogaming is completely different from contemporary gaming. Basically if something is known to become short stock or go out of stock of retrogames, the prices will skyrocket, whereas for current gen games it seems like they lower the price in order to sell as much of it as possible in the time they have. And while writing this I realised how stupid it was. Anyways, I remember licenses expiring being the reason I got a hold of Alan Wake on Steam. I'm sad I didn't know about these games going for free on humble bundle though... Wish I had known..

Better grab them from a reselling site while they're still cheap if you want them!

 

[Viri]

Oh, that explains why they gave them both away for free. I never even installed them, to try them.

 

[Most-Wanted]

Noooo i was being stubborn and never bought the lego hobbit since it was only the first two movies in the game, Dammit

Well time for ebay i guess, should still be some codes

 

[FanNintendo]

could b a key or hint why they didnt want to add continue like the indiana the jones the continues part 2 it never ends?

 

[eyeliner]

Bummer. I didn't get the hobbit freebie.
Missed that one by two hours.

Well, it's justified why two lego games were offered.
At least, they were nice for offering them games.

 

[Clydefrosch]

Oh no, such an integral part of video game history is being lost forever in the sense that it's only available in the same way as most other games from now on?

No for real, nothing of value is lost here

 

[FAST6191]

Oh no, such an integral part of video game history is being lost forever in the sense that it's only available in the same way as most other games from now on?

No for real, nothing of value is lost here

In some ways yes, in other ways I don't know if we can dismiss it that easily.

First I would say the themed lego games are actually quite a notable part of gaming history -- some have pondered if minecraft will be to kids of a few years back what Mario and Sonic might have been to those of the 8-16 bit era, however those just before the minecraft date I would place reasonable odds at having these games be that. The franchise had been worn a bit thin by this point (not quite PS1 era Army Men but heading that way) but that does not mean all that much.

Second it is a problem seemingly unique to games, and one that the music industry more or less solved before computer games were really a thing, certainly nothing like we know them today. It is not even a technical problem -- spinning up a run of N64 protection chips is a tricky thing, we don't however seem to be running out of bandwidth any time soon, the owners of the property are still known so as they can get their royalties. To stand idly by while this sort of thing happens then being a dubious concept -- your enemies are never going to pick ground that is favourable to you and all that.

 

[pedro702]

In some ways yes, in other ways I don't know if we can dismiss it that easily.

First I would say the themed lego games are actually quite a notable part of gaming history -- some have pondered if minecraft will be to kids of a few years back what Mario and Sonic might have been to those of the 8-16 bit era, however those just before the minecraft date I would place reasonable odds at having these games be that. The franchise had been worn a bit thin by this point (not quite PS1 era Army Men but heading that way) but that does not mean all that much.

Second it is a problem seemingly unique to games, and one that the music industry more or less solved before computer games were really a thing, certainly nothing like we know them today. It is not even a technical problem -- spinning up a run of N64 protection chips is a tricky thing, we don't however seem to be running out of bandwidth any time soon, the owners of the property are still known so as they can get their royalties. To stand idly by while this sort of thing happens then being a dubious concept -- your enemies are never going to pick ground that is favourable to you and all that.

i think what he meant by nothing is lost is that you can grab a used copy easily on ebay,amazon and the likes, its not like those games are rare or exclusive, they were released on all systems that existed at a time, so nothing is lost.

it would be another story if the game was digital only and people couldn't even get it at all without going the illegal route.

 

[FAST6191]

i think what he meant by nothing is lost is that you can grab a used copy easily on ebay,amazon and the likes, its not like those games are rare or exclusive, they were released on all systems that existed at a time, so nothing is lost.

it would be another story if the game was digital only and people couldn't even get it at all without going the illegal route.

I would agree to a statement of it would be worse, however it is a problem that has no technical reason to exist, and ones of very very dubious creative reason to exist either. If we don't stand up and try to get things done now it would be an awful lot harder later when such things become a bigger problem.

 

[BORTZ]

I dont like digital
I dont like digital
I dont like digital

 

[the_randomizer]

I dont like digital
I dont like digital
I dont like digital

It's their bullshit licensing, DRM, etc that makes me glad I never felt bad pirating games.