The Middle-earth Shadow of War Forthog DLC will now be made available free to gamers, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and Monolith have announced today.
Forthog was produced to honor Michael Forgey, a developer at Monolith who sadly passed away last year from a rare form of cancer.
Initially, Monolith had planned to donate profits from sales of the expansion to Forgey’s family, although this drew criticism after it was suggested that a portion of the money generated would not go directly to Forgey’s widow and children.
As a result, Monolith has now confirmed that it will donate directly to the family, while anyone who has purchased Forthog will be refunded.
“We sincerely apologize to the fans and to the Forgey family for the confusion we created. To ensure the two original aims are still met and to provide transparency to the community, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment will instead make a donation directly to the Forgey family,” the publisher said in statement.
"The DLC will be withdrawn from sale and will be a free download for owners of Middle-earth: Shadow of War. Anyone who has purchased the DLC will receive a full refund. If there is interest in donating directly to the family, please visit their youcaring site."
The Forthog DLC hasn’t been the only thing to generate controversy with Shadow of War. The loot and microtransaction system has also received heavy criticism, which Monolith felt compelled to justify in a recent interview with Eurogamer.
Middle-earth Shadow of War is due for release on October 10, 2017 for PlayStation 4, PC, and Xbox One.
The fantasy action-RPG takes place following the events of Shadow of Mordor, and sees protagonist Talion, now wielding a newly-forged Ring of Power, attempting to overthrow the Dark Lord Sauron by commanding entire legions of his own branded Orcs.
Warner Bros. has been teasing the game’s release with a series of dedicated videos highlighting the various Orc factions in the game, including the Terror, Dark, Feral, and Warmonger Tribes.