Update, September 6: Warner Bros. have clarified that they will not profit from the sale of Middle-earth: Shadow of War DLC dedicated to the memory of one of the game’s developers.
Neither Warner Bros. or Monolith will profit from sales of the Forthog Orc-Slayer DLC for Middle-earth: Shadow of War. The DLC was created in memory of Shadow of War’s executive producer Mike Forgey, who passed away in 2016. Profits from the sale of the content will be donated to Forgey’s family, but until now it wasn’t completely apparent how the money would be shared.
Yesterday, a Warner Bros. spokesperson told Eurogamer that “neither Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment nor Monolith Productions will profit from any sales of the Forthog Orc-Slayer DLC regardless of the territory in which that DLC is sold.”
This tells us that the $0.49 discrepancy between the cost of the DLC and the amount going to Forgey’s family will cover the cost of developing the character – the add-on costs $3.99 in the USA, but only $3.50 was due to be donated. It also suggests that money raised from regions outside the US will also be donated, which didn’t seem to be the case when the DLC was first announced.
If you’d like to donate to the Forgey family without buying Shadow of War, you can do so via YouCaring.
Original story, September 1: Monolith have immortalised one of their development team in Middle-earth: Shadow of War. Forthog Orc-Slayer will be available as add-on content in the upcoming game.
Forthog was created in memory of Mike ‘Forthog’ Forgey, who was executive producer on the game before he passed away in 2016. The video announcing his inclusion shows Forthog intervening to save Talion from an ugly fate at the end of an orcish axe.
After issuing Talion a friendly warning, Forthog disappears into the fog, and the rest of the video shows him elegantly carving up some orcs. The video ends with a message from Monolith that reads “Mike ‘Forthog’ Forgey was our Executive Producer and great friend here at Monolith. We lost Mike to cancer during the development of Shadow of War and we want to remember and honor him with a little bit of immortality in Mordor.”
The video goes on to say that Warner Bros. Games will donate $3.50 of every Forthog Orc-Slayer sale made in the US until the end of 2019 to Forgey’s family. We don’t know how much Forthog will cost, but it seems that his aim is to step in occasionally to save Talion and, fittingly, slay the orc that was about to kill him.
Middle-earth: Shadow of War is out on October 10 for PC, PS4, and Xbox One.