For those wanting to jump into the fray to save the Lego-ized world of Middle Earth (and who don’t already own the game), you may need to get creative in how you go about doing so.

According to Eurogamer, Lego Lord of the Rings and Lego The Hobbit is no longer available for purchase from Steam and digital console marketplaces.

The games have been removed from stores since the beginning of the year. Because the games were licensed adaptations of the film trilogies - Lego The Hobbit utilizing actual voice lines and the musical score directly from the movie - it is likely that Lego's licensing for the rights to the franchises expired at the end of 2018. However, no official word has been given as to why the games have disappeared (possibly into the wraith realm).

"Lego The Lord of the Rings and Lego The Hobbit will no longer be available for sale in digital stores," a spokesperson for Warner Bros. - the publisher for Lego Lord of the Rings and Lego The Hobbit - told Eurogamer. "The games will remain in players' libraries if they already own them."

That means, even if you own the games, but have deleted your saved game data, you will still be able to download the games again at your leisure.

It is unfortunate that the two Lego franchises have essentially ceased to exist, especially considering the fact that Lego The Hobbit was left unfinished. A third and final DLC episode was planned to round out the full trilogy, but that plan never became a reality, leaving players with a frustratingly unfinished story.

Moving forward, players wanting to play the games will need to resort to the old-school methods of searching for physical copies from second-hand sellers.

However, the truth of the matter is that neither game was exactly soaring in popularity - at least on PC. According to Steamcharts, both games have had sub-100 average players within the past year (which has honestly been the case for a long time prior to 2018), before jumping in player counts by +1,000% in December.

Apparently it’s true: You don’t know what you have until it’s gone.

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