Jeffrey Steefel, executive producer of Lord of the Rings Online, recently stated during a live interview session that Turbine plans to continue releasing yearly expansions for its MMO based on Tolkein's literary masterpiece.

While their biggest competitors, Blizzard and Mythic, don't follow the same strategy and have no plans of implementing such frequent updates, Turbine is adopting this pattern as a way of competing with its MMO rivals.  It also works will with the game, Steefel said.

"We have been driving our content strategy based on our game and our audience," he explained.  "What other folks do is driven by their needs.  The bottom line is that we believe we need to deliver ongoing, quality and meaningful content to our subscribers regularly. This is serial entertainment in a sense, and we all expect it to continue to grow and evolve."

Steefel explained that the updates are also tied to the books, which are still an ongoing series.