LotR Online Dev Turbine Bought By Warner Bros

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Media giant Warner Bros. announced last night that it has acquired MMORPG developer Turbine, the studio responsible for The Lord of the Rings Online and Asheron's Call.

"Turbine's renowned online game development and publishing expertise will help us develop additional online product offerings, while also providing us with new and innovative ways to market and communicate with our consumers," said Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group president Kevin Tsujihara in the announcement.

"We have been looking to expand access to our online worlds to more players and more markets," chipped in Turbine CEO Jim Crowley. "This acquisition is very exciting because it allows us to expand globally while continuing to focus on creating spectacular online games that our loyal fans and players have come to expect."

Turbine's first title was the MMORPG Asheron's Call in 1999, a world revisited by several expansion packs and a sequel. These were followed by Dungeons & Dragon's Online, which later relaunched successfully under a free-to-play model supported by optional subscriptions and microtransactions. Turbine took on another licensed property in 2007 with The Lord of the Rings Online, which also received several expansions.

Warner Bros. recently acquired a majority stake in Batman: Arkham Asylum developer Rocksteady and opened a new studio for games based upon comic books. The company also a number of studios including LEGO Star Wars developer TT Games, F.E.A.R. masters Monolith and Lord of the Rings: War in the North dev Snowblind.

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From The Chatty
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    April 21, 2010 6:02 AM

    I joined LOTRO at launch, quit about 2 months later, then joined back up again this past October and quit 2 weeks later. It just seems like an animal grind-fest, go here, get that, come back type of deal. The instances were pretty interesting though. It's not a bad game, I guess it just doesn't cater to everyone.

    • reply
      April 21, 2010 6:14 AM

      Watching linoleum curl > playing a turbine mmo

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      April 21, 2010 6:16 AM

      I have a lifetime account and I never regretted it once, even though I don't really play anymore.

      I have that reaction to WoW so I know the feeling.

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      April 21, 2010 9:34 AM

      You just described 99.5% of all MMO's game-play.

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        April 21, 2010 10:54 AM

        I agree - this is basically what every MMO out there is like. Ok, you have some exceptions to the rule like EVE but most fantasy MMOs are like this. The main selling point of LOTRO is the lore. Many of the people I know who play it, myself included, only really started playing it because of the lore the game is based on.

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