No Plans to Release LEGO The Hobbit's Five Armies DLC

A proposed downloadable expansion to LEGO The Hobbit, which was expected to be based on the final instalment of the movie trilogy, will not see light of day.

In a statement sent to GameSpot, publisher Warner Bros did not explicitly state that the expansion had been cancelled, rather that "there are no plans to develop DLC based on the final film of the trilogy." The publisher also confirmed that it has no plans to release a new game based on the film.

It is not clear how far Warner Bros proceeded with plans to develop DLC based on the third Hobbit film, The Battle of the Five Armies, which was released across theatres in December.

LEGO The Hobbit, which shipped across nine platforms in April last year, followed the story of the first two films of the trilogy, with the final scene in the game mirroring that of the second film.

During the same month of the game's release, it was informally announced at the London Toy Fair that the story's conclusion would come to the game via an expansion. If such a plan were to be fully enacted by Warner Bros, it would mean that the DLC would need to be built for PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Wii U, Nintendo 3DS, Windows, and OSX.

Across the eleven months since word of the DLC first surfaced, Warner Bros and developer Traveller's Tales have been flooded with questions and requests regarding the expansion.

Fans sent questions to both companies across the game's forums, Facebook pages, and to the Twitter accounts of connected individuals. Despite these requests arriving on a daily basis, no clear answer had arrived.

Warner Bros' full statement follows:

"The LEGO The Hobbit videogame gives LEGO and Middle-earth fans a fun, new way to experience the legendary adventures of Bilbo and company as told in the first two films of Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit trilogy. The game provides an excellent set-up for the concluding chapter of Peter Jackson’s film, The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies. There are no plans to develop DLC based on the final film of the trilogy."

GameSpot's LEGO The Hobbit review aired several reservations. Critic Carolyn Petit wrote: "There's no shortage of content in Lego The Hobbit. The main story quest covers the narrative films in detail, though frustratingly, it ends on the same cliff-hanger that the second Hobbit film ends on, so there is no resolution offered here."

Warner Bros also confirmed that it has no plans to release a new game based on the film.