The original announcement of the Forthog Orc-Slayer DLC for Middle-earth: Shadow of War spawned so much controversy and negativism towards WB Games all over the world, that the company decided to publish an official apology to the Forgey family and announce big changes in regards to how the profits will be dealt with from the sales of this DLC – it will now be free to all who own Shadow of War and all purchases up to this point will be fully returned as a refund.
SHADOW OF WAR Forthog Orc-Slayer DLC Announced
Here is the full message, posted by one of the admins – GypsyWB – on the WB forums:
The Forthog Orc-Slayer DLC was created by the team at Monolith Productions to immortalize Michael Forgey, a dear friend and colleague, and to raise funds to help support his widow and children.
Specifically, we decided to sell the DLC worldwide and donate all profits from the DLC to the family. Although we decided to donate all profits to the family, we only planned to actively promote this donation in the U.S. (excluding certain states based on their charitable promotion laws). We hoped this approach would raise as much money as possible for the Forgey family in compliance with the law. Our decision not to promote the donation outside the U.S. (even though we intended to donate the money) caused many to question where funds from other territories were going. Answering that direct question itself could have triggered compliance obligations or put us in violation of cause marketing laws in some of the 241 territories in which the content was available.
Additionally, a factually incorrect tweet from our team exacerbated the confusion by stating that international funds would not be going to the family. For absolute clarity; our intention was always to give all profits from the DLC, worldwide to the Forgey family.
We now recognize that tying our donation to sales of the DLC was not the best way to achieve our goal of offering financial support to the family and creating a lasting memorial to Michael Forgey. 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 The DLC will be withdrawn from sale and will be a free download for owners of Middle-earth: Shadow of War.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: https://www.youcaring.com/michael-forgey-479259.You can also join the Shadow of War Discord server.
