MMORPG.com's Jon Wood had the chance to speak with Turbine's Jeffrey Steefel and Aaron Campbell about the upcoming Lord of the Rings Online expansion, Siege of Mirkwood.

MMORPG.com:

Presenting Siege of Mirkwood as a digital expansion is a fairly radical departure from the aggressive retail box release of LotRO's first expansion, Mines of Moria. Is this an indication that a second expansion couldn't hold up to a retail distribution, or are there other factors at work?

Turbine:

Players and the industry should look at this as another example of Turbine exploring more and more ways we can continue to bring quality entertainment to our customers, and provide choice and diversity of offerings. Mirkwood Digital distribution means neither the end of retail LOTRO releases nor the end of free content updates. We are simply doing something different for Mirkwood to bring significant new content to players just a year after Moria, and in the most appropriate way possible for this particular product, and time. We want to continue to provide serial entertainment to players through both free and paid content offerings and this will continue to be the backbone of the LOTRO experience.

Read the Siege of Mirkwood Interview.