DDO Free to Play for Europe?

Sarr

By Jerry from DDOCast.com:

Turbine, Europe and the Console:

Two BIG press articles are out discussing Turbine's plans for the world and the console. First up, the Boston-based XConomy.com has an article with Turbine execs in which CEO Jim Crowley discusses Europe and the console:

On the technology front, Crowley and Horsfall told me that Turbine is working on a console-based game—though whether it’s based on one of the existing Turbine titles, and whether it’s for the Xbox 360, the Playstation 3, or some other platform, they aren’t ready to say. The company also has plans to build Mac versions of its games, which have all been Windows-based to date. Crowley says Turbine will soon take back the global rights to all of its games, which have historically been marketed and operated through partners in Europe and other regions. Finally, Crowley and Horsfall hinted that Turbine is on the verge of acquiring an additional entertainment property—something on the scale of Tolkien and Dungeons & Dragons that will serve as the foundation for a completely new set of online games and associated services.

Very interesting, indeed. Between this, the recent foreign language job posts and the fact that Codemasters is not getting the DDO Store, I think I'm right when I recently said that CM's days are numbered in DDO. I could be wrong, but we'll just have to see...

Here's a LINK to the full article.

 

So what can it mean? Currently, Codemasters operate both LotrO and D&D Online for Europe market. If Turbine is buying back the license from them, in can only mean that Codemasters soon won't have the rights to publish those 2 titles at all.

Having said that, it's very unlikely Turbine (which employs people speaking german and french for some time now) won't like to expand their Microtransaction/Free/Sub model for EU. It's a pure win system - if you still have any doubts, just look how many European players want to play on DDO US now just becasue it's going to have this model. And this includes me - we see and play it in beta, and we don't like to use the old version while the new is far superior.

What else can it mean?

Firstly, Turbine is really getting bigger. Buying those licenses from a company to which they sold it years ago means they don't need to wait until LotrO and DDO EU licenses expire - which would be far less costly. They could just wait and refuse to prolong those licenses to Codem. But, they chose to get them faster. Maybe 09.09.2009 launch will have both US and EU versions now? Nah, to be honest I think that's too optimistic date. Oh, well.

Secondly, if you don't use partners for foreing markets, you're able to earn much more. Having license to publish game directly in EU means that Turbine will have it's new branch in Europe. So, while this is certainly a big investment, I bet Turbine won't like to remove their EU branch ever. It's just better economically.

More so, we can expect at least similar game experience in EU as it is in the US now, because Turbine will have to develop their name and position on the "old continent" pretty much from the start. Additionally, Codemasters never had test or beta servers, nor premium services available (especially for DDO). But Turbine can do it, and most likely will, along with various discounts and promotions/celebrations.

So, let's hope it will turn out that way. And lets be honest - Codemasters never maintained DDO as good (in comparison) as Turbine did with their US version. Lack of GMs, lack of interest, months long delays of new content and community providing news by themselves on forums - are just a few differances.

Turbine certainly got a big $ stimulation from their investors, and seems to make good use from it. It really looks like they're rising their standards a few levels up now (who's active in DDO beta community, should see it clearly by now).

Papadam

Originally posted by Sarr


By Jerry from DDOCast.com:
Turbine, Europe and the Console:
Two BIG press articles are out discussing Turbine's plans for the world and the console. First up, the Boston-based XConomy.com has an article with Turbine execs in which CEO Jim Crowley discusses Europe and the console:
On the technology front, Crowley and Horsfall told me that Turbine is working on a console-based game—though whether it’s based on one of the existing Turbine titles, and whether it’s for the Xbox 360, the Playstation 3, or some other platform, they aren’t ready to say. The company also has plans to build Mac versions of its games, which have all been Windows-based to date. Crowley says Turbine will soon take back the global rights to all of its games, which have historically been marketed and operated through partners in Europe and other regions. Finally, Crowley and Horsfall hinted that Turbine is on the verge of acquiring an additional entertainment property—something on the scale of Tolkien and Dungeons & Dragons that will serve as the foundation for a completely new set of online games and associated services.


Very interesting, indeed. Between this, the recent foreign language job posts and the fact that Codemasters is not getting the DDO Store, I think I'm right when I recently said that CM's days are numbered in DDO. I could be wrong, but we'll just have to see...
Here's a LINK to the full article.
 
So what can it mean? Currently, Codemasters operate both LotrO and D&D Online for Europe market. If Turbine is buying back the license from them, in can only mean that Codemasters soon won't have the rights to publish those 2 titles at all.
Having said that, it's very unlikely Turbine (which employs people speaking german and french for some time now) won't like to expand their Microtransaction/Free/Sub model for EU. It's a pure win system - if you still have any doubts, just look how many European players want to play on DDO US now just becasue it's going to have this model. And this includes me - we see and play it in beta, and we don't like to use the old version while the new is far superior.
What else can it mean?
Firstly, Turbine is really getting bigger. Buying those licenses from a company to which they sold it years ago means they don't need to wait until LotrO and DDO EU licenses expire - which would be far less costly. They could just wait and refuse to prolong those licenses to Codem. But, they chose to get them faster. Maybe 09.09.2009 launch will have both US and EU versions now? Nah, to be honest I think that's too optimistic date. Oh, well.
Secondly, if you don't use partners for foreing markets, you're able to earn much more. Having license to publish game directly in EU means that Turbine will have it's new branch in Europe. So, while this is certainly a big investment, I bet Turbine won't like to remove their EU branch ever. It's just better economically.

More so, we can expect at least similar game experience in EU as it is in the US now, because Turbine will have to develop their name and position on the "old continent" pretty much from the start. Additionally, Codemasters never had test or beta servers, nor premium services available (especially for DDO). But Turbine can do it, and most likely will, along with various discounts and promotions/celebrations.
So, let's hope it will turn out that way. And lets be honest - Codemasters never maintained DDO as good (in comparison) as Turbine did with their US version. Lack of GMs, lack of interest, months long delays of new content and community providing news by themselves on forums - are just a few differances.
Turbine certainly got a big $ stimulation from their investors, and seems to make a good use from it. It really looks they're rising their standards a few levels up now (who's active in DDO beta community, should see it clearly by now).

 

Very interesting new, thanks for posting Sarr!

There is also a rumor that Warner bros is about to buy Codemasters and we already know that Warner Bros have invested alot of money in Turbine, so maybe they are working something out!  Will be very exciting to see what happens to Turbine next.

IMO Codemaster have done a pretty good job with LotrO in Europe even if we miss some stuff the US players have and get updates later.

Sarr

Originally posted by Papadam



Very interesting new, thanks for posting Sarr!
There is also a rumor that Warner bros is about to buy Codemasters and we already know that Warner Bros have invested alot of money in Turbine, so maybe they are working something out!  Will be very exciting to see what happens to Turbine next.
IMO Codemaster have done a pretty good job with LotrO in Europe even if we miss some stuff the US players have and get updates later.

 

Yeah, for LotrO they always did better... It's a common expression on DDO EU forums that LotrO is their "cash cow". So I wonder why would they like to sell it... Did Turbine offer them that much cash? Or will they merge with Turbine somehow?

Either way, I don't see how Codem could continue to run LotrO when Turbine bought out the license from them .

And I'm also curious what this new IP could be... I bet this will go for their console project. But what could it be? IP as big as Tolkien and D&D? Is there any?

Dr.Rock

Originally posted by Sarr
So, let's hope it will turn out that way. And lets be honest - Codemasters never maintained DDO as good (in comparison) as Turbine did with their US version. Lack of GMs, lack of interest, months long delays of new content and community providing news by themselves on forums - are just a few differances.

I have never had a problem with Codemasters running of DDO, we never got the months of US Turbine lag problems for instance. The GM support is probably correct for the level of income the game generates, and I have never had a major problem (but then I came from a NCSoft game where I didn't actually believe GMs existed - only responses I got were to close a call 24 hours later because strangely I was no longer online), although I do miss when AD were in charge of community support and we got more events than the US. As for content updates being delayed I would put that firmly at Turbine's doors, as it has always been clear that the delay has been CM having to regionalise/wait for mutliple patches after a module release. There are several hints they would be quite happy to release module 9 now, but are clearly not being allowed to do so.

Sarr

Originally posted by Dr.Rock

Originally posted by Sarr
So, let's hope it will turn out that way. And lets be honest - Codemasters never maintained DDO as good (in comparison) as Turbine did with their US version. Lack of GMs, lack of interest, months long delays of new content and community providing news by themselves on forums - are just a few differances.

I have never had a problem with Codemasters running of DDO, we never got the months of US Turbine lag problems for instance. The GM support is probably correct for the level of income the game generates, and I have never had a major problem (but then I came from a NCSoft game where I didn't actually believe GMs existed - only responses I got were to close a call 24 hours later because strangely I was no longer online), although I do miss when AD were in charge of community support and we got more events than the US. As for content updates being delayed I would put that firmly at Turbine's doors, as it has always been clear that the delay has been CM having to regionalise/wait for mutliple patches after a module release. There are several hints they would be quite happy to release module 9 now, but are clearly not being allowed to do so.

 

Codem never had lag problems, but they have 2 servers running. Turbine had 7 official - 6 public, and one for beta tests. Also, Codem are not DDO developers, so I'd expect that Turbine used the same machines for Mournlands and their own development... that would pretty much explain the lag.

But there's no lag on Lamannia now outside of stress tests - and the last was almost as smooth as EU. Excluding Turbine Store which almost stopped working when they did sudden promotions (broadcasted).

With all sympathy for Codemasters, I think that Turbine would handle it better. Certainly there would be more people on servers, especially with new model. Maybe even more servers to handle the load. You can trust me that with free to play, community on Lamannia hasn't got worse even a bit : ). Even while there's no live support tickets on beta!

Yeah, I didn't have any problems with GMs on DDO EU too. So I admit that part was written just because I've seen numerous threads about it while I was playing in EU.

Either way, if all those news would mean free to play for DDO EU, I'm going back. While it's much cheaper and easier for me to play in DDO US now, I miss European folks . I'm 100% European...