Middle-earth Online

Middle-earth Online was the title of a game that Sierra was devoloping in 1998. Sierra was then bought out by Vivendi Universal Games in 1999. Vivendi agreed to jointly produce the game with Turbine in 2003. Vivendi abandonded the project and sold the rights to the game exclusively to Turbine March 2004. Turbine announced that the name of the game would be changed from Middle-earth Online to The Lord of the Rings Online.