The war for Middle-earth will continue this fall in Lord of the Rings Online new downloadable expansion 'Siege of Mirkwood,' announced today by developer Turbine.

Expanding to the "Dark, foreboding and treacherous forest of Mirkwood," players will conclude the previous expansion 'Mines of Moria' with a slog through hordes of orcs to the Ringwraith fortress of Dol Guldur, which houses new instances and a 12-player raid.

Siege of Mirkwood will boost the MMORPG's level cap to 65 with accompanying new skills and class quests, add new legendary crafted items, and bring repeatable randomised instances with customistable AI companions in the new 'Skirmishes' mode.

Turbine has yet to announce pricing for the download-only expansion.

In what is bound to be an ongoing case of "he said-she said," publisher Atari has fired back against the $30 million lawsuit from Dungeons & Dragons Online maker Turbine.

Atari labeled the lawsuit, in which Turbine accuses Atari of fraud and extortion, as "frivolous" and filed a motion to dismiss the suit, along with another complaint to "recover monies owed to Atari resulting from an independent third party audit of Turbine."

In last week's suit, Turbine said Atari's claim of being owed more money was "unfounded." The entire affair centers around the Dungeons & Dragons license, which Turbine sublicensed from Atari so that it could create D&D Online... Read more

Dungeons & Dragons Online developer Turbine is pursuing legal action against Atari, alleging the publisher of fraud, unjust enrichment, and breach of contract.

The bulk of Turbine's suit seems to revolve around the new D&D: Neverwinter Nights MMO Atari is said to be prepping in conjunction with Champions Online developer Cryptic. Turbine initially licensed the D&D MMO rights from Atari back in 2003.

In short, Turbine says that Atari lied about its "enthusiastic support" for the upcoming free-to-play relaunch of DDO, and then "trumped up" false charges against Turbine "in an effort to extort more money from Turbine, or, alternately, to free itself from its obligations under the contracts in order to clear the way for the launch of its own competing MMO service based on the D&D and Advanced D&D intellectual properties... Read more

Lord of the Rings Online developer Turbine has confirmed that it is working on a new MMO that will include the micro-transaction business model.

The company posted a job listing for a micro-transaction and e-commerce manager earlier in the week, leading many to believe that it would be adding micro-transactions to its current MMOs. A Turbine spokesperson instead explained that the position is for work on an unannounced project.

"We know the recent job listing has caused a bit of a stir, but please be aware that this posting is for an unannounced future project," said Lord of the Rings Online community manager Sapience in a forum post.

Micro-transactions, or small payments in exchange for in-game benefits, have been a controversial but potentially lucrative source of revenue.

Games supported by micro-transactions typically include free-to-play titles, such as EA's Battlefield Heroes and Petroglyph's Mytheon. BioWare's upcoming Star Wars MMO The Old Republic has also been rumored to make use of the micro-transaction model.

Lord of the Rings Online (PC) developer Turbine is known to be working on console MMOs, but fans will likely have to wait to next year to get details on what the company has up its sleeve.

"I would guess by early next year we'll be able to be much more specific about what we're doing with console," said LOTRO executive producer Jeff Steefel to VG247, who dodged questions about whether Lord of the Rings Online was itself headed to consoles.

Mines of Moria, the Lord of the Rings Online expansion due November 18

"What we're doing now is the early development work and the work with the hardware manufacturers to understand where they're heading in the online space, where the connectivity between the console and internet is really headed," explained Steefel.

"That's everything from how the games really need to behave to the relationship between the hardware manufacturers and the developers to the publishing model, to the consumer business model," he elaborated.

In October, Turbine opened a west coast studio to support its development effort, picking up a number of Hellgate: London alumni along the way from now-defunct developer Flagship Studios.

Lord of the Rings Online developer Turbine has opened a new west coast studio in Redwood City, CA, to support the expansion of platforms the company supports. Along the way, the studio announced it picked up a few noteworthy recruits from the defunct Flagship Studios, developer of Hellgate: London.

"The new studio will be a vital part of Turbine's corporate vision as it brings new titles to market, expands the platforms it supports and introduces new technologies to expand and grow the communities that are the foundation of online games," reads a press release from Turbine. As all of Turbine's releases to date have been PC games, the "platforms" mentioned could imply that future Turbine titles are headed to consoles.

Among Turbine's personnel acquisitions are creative director Dave Brebik, a Blizzard North alum and former Chief Visionary Officer for Flagship, and Jeff Lind, a technology specialist who will take the role of engineering director. The studio will be headed by Matt McKnight, former CEO of Sniper Studios, whose only release is Crazy Taxi: Fare Wars (PSP).

Turbine has a long history of well-received MMO games, starting with Asheron's Call and most recently Lord of the Rings Online.

Lord of the Rings Online developer Turbine, traditionally a PC gaming developer, has confirmed speculation that it is at work on a console MMO.

Turbine communications director Adam Mersky told Kotaku that the company is "actively developing a title for console."

Mersky did not specify further what the title would be, or whether it would make use of licensed properties like previous Turbine efforts Dungeons and Dragons Online (PC) or Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar (PC).

The company, which recently received a $40 million equity financing investment from Time Warner, intends to utilize part of the funds to fuel the new project. Mersky noted that the company has already seen considerable expansion.

"We've hired over 60 people since the beginning of the year," he said... Read more

Publisher Codemasters has unveiled the first retail expansion pack for Turbine's Tolkein-inspired PC MMO, The Lord of the Rings Online. A smattering of concept art accompanied the announcement.

Titled Mines of Moria and marking the start of the game's second volume, the expansion is expected to arrive this fall. Across its six books, players will be able to help release Durin's Bane, battle the Watcher, and aid Galadriel.

Alongside with new environments and foes, it will raise the level cap to 60, sport a new item forging system, and introduce two new classes: the Rune-keeper and the Warden.

"The Mines of Moria is one of the most epic settings in all of fantasy fiction," said Turbine CEO and president Jim Crowley. "No one delivers more quality content than Turbine and with our journey into Moria, we will raise the bar even higher."