It's time to fire up the speculation engine boys and girls, as a pair of developments at Lord of the Rings Online developer Turbine indicate that MMO studio may have aspirations to bring Dungeons & Dragons Online to the living room. The Westwood-based company has posted a job opening for a senior console engineer with a MMO background as well as experience developing on both the Xbox 360 and PS3. Additionally, Turbine made public on its DDO community forum that the game's developers are "working full-tilt on several things that are still under tight wraps," and that "DDO will be getting more and more focus from Turbine's marketing and PR teams over the coming months."
While far from conclusive, together this information makes a convincing argument for Turbine prepping its pen-and-paper inspired MMO for the console market. It makes sense, particularly given the company's recent financialinvestments, part of which Turbine CEO Jim Crowley admitted will go towards expanding the dev's supported platforms. For now, however, we continue to wait for any official word while making saving throws vs. patience and taking all of this with 1D6 grains of salt.
Lord of the Rings Online and Dungeons & Dragons Online developer, Turbine Inc., today announced its success in raising $40 million in equity financing. In addition to operating a particularly ruthless lemonade stand, Turbine secured the funds via new investors Time Warner Inc. and GGV Capital (formerly Granite Global Ventures). "Turbine has an extraordinary team, incredible technology and a growing portfolio of games based on some of the most popular brands ever created," said president and CEO of Turbine, Jim Crowley. "With this funding we are uniquely positioned to change the future of online entertainment as we bring new titles to market, expand the platforms we support and introduce new technologies to sustain self-evolving game worlds."
New games and new technologies sound like responsible things to invest in, Mr. Crowley. Responsible, but boring. We would have gone for something like the world's biggest ice cream cake.
MMO developer Turbine found its purse a bit heavier this week after securing a $40 million round of financing from a group of investors led by Granite Global Ventures, filling the Lord of the Rings Online creator's total venture capital money bin to around $90 million mark.
According to a report by Private Equity Hub, the investment also saw Granite Global's managing partner Hani Nada take a seat on Turbine's board, presumably in order to make sure the money was put to good use and not slipped into the underwear of Elvish hookers after a night on the town. While we remain in the dark as to what exactly the studio will do with its newfound wealth, Turbine is expected to make an announcement regarding its future plans in the next two weeks.
In what's become de riguer for the folks at Turbine Software, this April Fools' Day sees the announcement of a brand new content update for Middle-Earth's MMO, The Lord of the Rings Online. Dubbed "The Battle of Amon Hen," the not-at-all-downloadable peckage introduces a new playable chicken class and an accompanying quest, "Crossing the Road." Penny-pinching players should be pleased to note that Turbine doesn't aim to recooperate any of the update's cost, offering it for the poultry fee of "free." We'd make another chicken joke, but we'd rather send you off to the game's official site and pass the buck-buck-buck.
Good news for fans of the under-appreciated Lord of the Rings Onlinetoday: Executive producer Jeffrey Steefel has announced that the game's first expansion pack, The Mines of Moria, will be coming to your PC by the end of the year. Well, maybe not your PC. But you probably knows someone who plays it, right?
What's new? Well, the level cap's being raised from 50 to 60, so that's ... higher. Also you've got two new classes (the Warden and Runekeeper) and look for a brand new 'legendary' loot system, which will allow your items to evolve with a character as they're used. If you're choking on your Lembas bread with excitement, you might be able to track down some more details at this teaser site.
You know what it's like when it's early morning and so toasty under the covers snuggled up against that someone special that you just don't see any reason to get out bed. We imagine that's a lot like the relationship between The Lord of the Rings Online developer Turbine and Tolkien Enterprises, as the pair have agreed to extend their relationship until 2014 -- with an option to work together for three more years after that -- ensuring that players will be able to continue to frolic and grind their way through Middle Earth.
We're very interested to see where Turbine takes the franchise going forward, especially after comments made by executive producer Jeffrey Steefel in January regarding the developer's console-based aspirations for the license. In addition, while no new game announcements have been made, the recent confirmation of a new 2-part Hobbit film finally getting underway would seem to make excellent fodder for the MMO developer, and we expect that the pair will continue to play footsie beneath the sheets for years to come.
Codemasters CEO Rod Cousens went full-out lady of the night in an MCV interview speaking about industry consolidation, saying his company should be considered attractive to potential suiters. Cousens believes Codemasters is "the fastest growing company in the fastest growing entertainment sector" and believes it is "unrivaled" as a privately-owned company.
Well then, wow, that's coming on strong. Codemasters did have an admittedly strong 2007 despite the mixed quality of games like Overlord, Dirt and Jericho. The company is also planning its Codemasters Online convention for Birmingham, England in March. We'll keep an eye on who is checking out Codemasters from the streets and certainly report if anybody puts money down for a good time.
Codemasters Online is producing a Blizzcon style event called Codemasters Online Connect 2008 (that's just not a sexy name) featuring its lineup of MMO games. Attendees will log into the real world at Omega Sektor in Birmingham, England on March 14 and 15 to log right back out again on 400 PCs running various Codemaster Online games. Alternatively, they can stick around the real world a little bit for round-table discussions and pose questions to the "Codemasters Online team." Ticket prices have yet to be announced.
The event will showcase games already out like Lord of the Rings Online and Dungeons & Dragons Online, and will apparently offer some game announcements. So, if you're looking for a Blizzcon featuring the second tier MMOs currently on the market, get ready to pack your bags for Birmingham.
Just like the unlikely heroes in its namesake, Lord of the Rings Onlinecontinues to persevere, despite impossible odds. Now, much like Gandalf when times looked darkest for the Fellowship, Turbine is releasing some new content for the game, including new high-level stuff, new raids and player-owned housing. ... Well, it's what Gandalf would have done, if he hadn't lived in caveman times.
We're not playing LOTRO, so it's difficult to say how much this content will mean to players. But it doesn't take a wizard to figure out that free content it always a good thing. Look for Book 11: Defenders of Eriador sometime this month, and our sister blog Massively will have ongoing in-depth coverage of Book 11.
Turbine Studios, developer of Lord of the Rings Online and D&D Online, announced a new CEO yesterday to replace long-time CEO Jeff Anderson (pictured). New CEO Jeff Crowley, who came from outside the industry, was brought on board a couple months ago as "one of many [hires] that Turbine has recently made to invest in new talent that will drive the next wave of the company's growth." Translation: The Turbine board wasn't happy with the management or money the company was making and decided to make changes.
There's no mention of Anderson's fate in the press release, but word is that he's been pushed out of the company. It'll be interesting to see how Crowley handles the company, Anderson was always the public face of Turbine and its games. It'll also be interesting to see if Crowley survives the behind-the-scenes issues which caused the shakeup in the first place.
Turbine announced today that they're offering a free 7-day trial for their successful Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar. The offer is available for North America, Australia and New Zealand. The press release finally gives us some numbers for LoTRO and says there are "4 million characters calling Middle-earth their home." That's a pretty slick way of avoiding how many actual accounts there are, but we'll totally believe them that it's the "second largest MMORPG" behind the unfathomably successful World of Warcraft. In that race, second place is a perfectly respectable place to be.
LoTRO recently had their second content update which continues to drive the MMO in a good direction. The game seems to be doing well enough that it's been mentioned as being part of Midway's increasing fiscal fortitude. The first full expansion for LoTRO, which will cover the events in The Two Towers and its peripheral story lines, is expected to be announced early next year.
Turbine's Lord of the Rings Online is getting another free content update with Book 10: The City of the Kings on Aug. 20. Turbine has been pretty solid in delivering content updates for their games on a regular schedule, releasingShores of Evendim shortly after launch. The new content includes:
Spending Destiny Points to play as a Ranger or Troll during monster play in the Ettenmoors.
Playing as a "critter," the first of which is a chicken. LotRO players can now explore Middle-earth from the non-humanoid perspective.
A reputation and bartering system, which allows players to gain rep. for rewards with factions and the bartering system allows players to trade trophies for gear.
100 new quests
UI is now more customizable
Although Turbine won't talk about how many players they have, they're boosting US publisher Midway's bottom line so they can't be doing all bad. LotRO game looks to get continual updates leading up to the expansion, which should be announced early next year.
Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter tells GameDaily that Midway may be only one franchise away from not playing the Atari game of financial problems anymore. Recently Midway reduced their losses to around $14 million, which sounds like a lot to us normal folk, but for a corporation, that's like owing someone $20. Apparently Lord of the Rings Online helped bolster the bottom line, but because Midway is merely the distributer, Turbine is still reaping most of the benefits.
Pachter believes Stranglehold will help Midway's cash flow and he expects it to sell a million copies in its first quarter of release. He believes profitability is right around the corner for the company if any of its titles do better than expected. Let's see, the contenders are Stranglehold, Blacksite: Area 51, and Unreal Tournament III. Given the way the industry is going, there's no reason any major company shouldn't currently be profitable -- unless they've got a great excuse.
We've already shared with you some of the new features added by the forthcoming Lord of the Rings Online update, Book 9: The Shores of Evendim so you know it's not all sandy beaches and sunscreen. Actually, none of it is. Further evidence of Shores' non-friendliness to vacationers is evident in this new trailer.
Take, for instance, that weird spear-carrying goblin. Good luck selling a condo next to that guy's hut. Oh, and we see there are creepy lizards roaming around and lots of stuff appears to be on fire! Watch those property values skyrocket. Don't trust your friendly Hobbit travel agent Seemo Islands, check it out for yourself when the free content goes live tomorrow.
Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar is apparently the #1 selling PC game in North America, Germany, UK and France and they're about to give players a free content update. Book 9: Shores of Evendim is the first in the expected quarterly content updates. The content update will go live June 13, some features include:
Discover Evendim, a region dominated by the Lake Nenuial, the 'Lake of the Twilight'. Amidst the ruins are powerful artifacts now threatened by evil creatures and the nefarious forces lurking in Angmar. What, you thought there would be cute puppies?
Over 100 new quests
Raid in the Battle for Helegrod, challenging the dragon Thorog in a 24-player raid in the Misty Mountains.
Major updates to the music system, players can now utilize a new music notation system that enables them to compose music offline and upload it to your character in-game.
Seven new sets of epic armor enable players to gain progressive bonuses for each piece of armor worn from a set.
We haven't received any player numbers for LotRO, so we don't know if Turbine has hit the magic million user mark, but from all accounts things are going solidly with the game. LotRO: Shadows of Angmar follows the adventures of the fellowship through the first book in the trilogy and fills in the gaps of the story. A few more content updates are expected before the full expansion pack next year.
