Warner Brothers buys Turbine...

levsix

Warner Brothers has purchased Turbine.

Here's just one article of many.

Excerpt:

“Where the trends are dragging us towards is looking at 3D opportunities and going direct to the consumer. The connected consoles are really a path to the home in a way that could become a meaningful distribution platform for us,” said Kevin Tsujihara, president of Warner’s home entertainment group.

Although Turbine’s games are online, and some are free to download, its technology would allow Warner to add “connectivity, micro-transactions and community” features to all its console games. “These online games are almost an excuse to keep in touch. People will make appointments to get on a game at a certain time,” he said."

 

Discuss.

leinad312

This could be good, I think WB owns the film franchise. Maybe Turbine will be able to use material from the films now.

RansomDenton

Personally I was born into a a wealthy family and a prosperous business. We lost everything and ended up at the bottom. I have no hate towards megacorps but I have no love for them either...if they are good and reasonable then wonderful, if they are terrible and unscrupulous then I do not use their services.



As of today I have no want to login to LOTRO. I have found Time Warner to be thoroughly horrible in it's business dealings to a point that this news taints everything for myself and so far two members of my guild.



Time Warner has proven themselves time and time again to be a company of loathsome small minded profit oriented Mordorians. I was born into a family that knew how to make money BUT knew how to treat it's employees and customers. This is a sad day for LOTRO. I left SWG after the NGE and now I will say goodbye to a once great game. I know that some will say "wait they have done anything yet." Well I worked for a game company and I have had MANY friends at MANY, from Ensemble to Ritual to Paradigm to Terminal Reality to Kings Isle to Perpetual to P2 to ID to Bioware...seeing a trend here?, companies and I know when the fat lady is warming up...wait I can almost hear her now.



RIP LOTRO you were a friend of infinite jest...



http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/80184a5c-4...44feab49a.html

erictlewis

Anybody who thinks taht turbine being sold out is going to be a good thing has never been through a buyout.

I have lived through 3 of them and have always been on the smaller guys team.

What happens is they usually let all the dead wood go, then get rid of all non esential personell.

So Yes you want be able to recognize turbine, or lotro in the near future.

All I can say is this proves how bad off financially turbine was doing even with there suposed 1 million ddo members.

Loktofeit

Originally posted by erictlewis

All I can say is this proves how bad off financially turbine was doing even with there suposed 1 million ddo members.

If the company was failing and the products doing poorly, why would Time Warner buy it?

Vexe

Well WB isn't really a bad company. More serious about pleasing customers than most. Better than, say, Activision or EA, even though that isn't saying much. But they do own GOOD games like Arkham Asylum and such. I think they're also looking to make up for the matrix online...the poor bastards...We'll see where this goes. I mean, hey, they ran half of my favorite cartoons when I was 8, so I automatically trust them due to nastalgia. Right?

AgtSmith

I think it is sad news.  WB may nto be EA but it still means another independent type studio is gone and another studio is subject to the baord rooms and accountants more so than the players and developers.  I didn't always like Turbine's choices but I always respected them as a company that develops rather than markets.

levsix

I'm quite impressed by the replies here! They are generally well thought out and constructive. I was expecting far worse. Haha.

I'm a long time Turbine game player. I am quite skeptical about this acquisition but that is only my opinion. 

I'm not a fan of Warner. I'm curious to see where this goes. I suspect a DDO style item mall/subscriber system will be coming to LOTRO in the near future.

At the end of the day it is a business, and if they can turn around what was a dying game like DDO, there's no reason to think they won't milk LOTRO  and monetize everything they can.  For example: It would be ironic if  the avatar customization people have wanted forever becomes available via a coin shop. Yes, I realize they have the outfitting system but the avatars themselves are very limited (skins, haircuts, no height differential, etc).

We'll just have to wait and see.

 

PS Good point Agt Smith.

Lobotomist

RIP Turbine...

No mater how you turn this, this great studio will change and most likely not for better.

Thats all that could be said about this.

Cartography

Even though I think LoTRO is overrated garbage,  it didn't start out that way. The game has been failing since MoM imo, and this isn't going to make it any better.  I predict it going free-to-play soon.

 

However, I am a Turbine fan.. so best of luck to the Turbine employees. I really hope none of them lose their job in this god-awful economy.

BelegStrongbow

If they combine the Film content with the game content now I think I will play this game until I die.  

Sovrath

Originally posted by erictlewis

Anybody who thinks taht turbine being sold out is going to be a good thing has never been through a buyout.

I have lived through 3 of them and have always been on the smaller guys team.

What happens is they usually let all the dead wood go, then get rid of all non esential personell.

So Yes you want be able to recognize turbine, or lotro in the near future.

All I can say is this proves how bad off financially turbine was doing even with there suposed 1 million ddo members.

I just made the same post on LOTRO forums.

I've been through only one such deal but many people got laid off the first round. Then when the economic downturn hit they laid off a good lot of us again (myself included).

I'm not sure if people have met the Turbine folks at the conventions but if you really watch them you get a very family feel to the whole thing.

I imagine that will change.

gotha

All i can say is good bye turbine.  large publishers are horrible for MMOs.  EA has been trying for years to be successful with MMOs and always fall on their face.  Their quest for short term gains for the stock market does not mesh well with the touchy nature of MMO development.

jm3334

This is great for Turbine.  As the company I work for was acquired by a massive eCommerce leader, we saved tons of money on technology costs and were able to turn around and invest back into our product.  This could be why we are the industry leader.

 

Being acquired by TW will save them tons of money in the long run.

1. 
   Turbine will not have to front the costs for server fees and maintenance
2. 
   They can cut out third party systems such as billing, site maintenance and customer service
3. 
   Save tons of money on HR (insurance, paperwork, paying employees, etc.)

 

Lastly, TW has relied on the LOTR franchise for a ton of revenue, they are aware of the money that can be made through their license, they acquired Turbine for the LOTRO game and will easily make it their number one priority.

Pabswikk

Originally posted by BelegStrongbow

If they combine the Film content with the game content now I think I will play this game until I die.  

That will be one way to lose some fans of the game. I think some people like it BECAUSE it has nothing to do with the films. The films, while great, were not the most accurate representations of the books, and if they start changing the game to fit the films, I think it would be a bad idea. Just my opinion

junzo316

All acquisitions are not bad.  Take for example CoX.  CoX was bought from Cryptic by NCSoft.  The game improved and grew under NCSoft, while keeping its charm.  If Cryptic were to have kept the IP, I would think they would have ran it into the ground by now.

Lateris

Does anyone remember what happened to Netscape? Exactly.

Christopher8

I expect news of Asheron's Call being shut down to be not far off. I also expect Microtrasnactions to be gradually introduced to LOTRO, if not more so.

 

Like I said at the Masively.com article on the same story, if anyone expects Turbine to operate the same are just fooling themselves. After spending $160 million bucks you can bet your ass that Warner Bros. is gonna direct the flow of all of Turbine's games. Cause someone somewhere in upper management will wonder why such and such didn't make that much money, and how it could and should have been done and worked better. It will be interesting to see if Warner Bros moves other talent into Turbine.

 

That is how it always starts. Hell, I'd rather have had NCsoft acquire Turbine.

gondor2220

Dont be so quick to think that lotro will crash and burn now that wb owns turbine..

U never know with the larger business more money could be invested in it.

if wb owns the film franchise means more can be put into the game from the films.

I just hope lotro doesnt go down being my favourite mmo

brostyn

Corporations exist to make the most money possible. They don't exist to provide gamers a balanced, fun experience. That is why its always bad news when a corporation buys out a studio.

Corporations are souless entities looking out only for themselves doing whatever possible to make more money than they did last year. If that means destroying the spirit of the game you bet your bottom they will do it. Even for short term gains. Just ask the banks and Wall Street.

brostyn

Originally posted by junzo316

All acquisitions are not bad.  Take for example CoX.  CoX was bought from Cryptic by NCSoft.  The game improved and grew under NCSoft, while keeping its charm.  If Cryptic were to have kept the IP, I would think they would have ran it into the ground by now.

This is not the same at all. CoX is a game, not a studio. We now see why NCSoft wanted no part of Cryptic.

Kyleran

Originally posted by junzo316

All acquisitions are not bad.  Take for example CoX.  CoX was bought from Cryptic by NCSoft.  The game improved and grew under NCSoft, while keeping its charm.  If Cryptic were to have kept the IP, I would think they would have ran it into the ground by now.

But many (if not most) do turn out for the worse, hence many folk's apprehension over the news.

You are correct, too early to tell whether this is good or bad, but for now I think LoTRO fans have little to fear.

gondor2220

If they have bought out turbine does that include codemasters aswell?

Darth_Osor

Originally posted by junzo316

All acquisitions are not bad.  Take for example CoX.  CoX was bought from Cryptic by NCSoft.  The game improved and grew under NCSoft, while keeping its charm.  If Cryptic were to have kept the IP, I would think they would have ran it into the ground by now.

NCSoft has experience in running and making MMOs.  Does WB?  Call me a skeptic, but I see more downside than upside to this.  I'm glad I only subscribe for 3 months at a time.

If Cryptic had kept CoV and ran it into the ground, maybe they would have been shuttered before Atari bought them and allowed them to turn Star Trek into a shallow pew-pew travesty of a MMO. 

Does WB own New Line Cinema?  I believe they are the ones making the new Hobbit movie.  Not to say LotRO won't benefit from some renewed interest in the IP when that movie comes out, but it will be harder to do promotions and tie-ins if WB doesn't own NLC.

erictlewis

Originally posted by gondor2220

If they have bought out turbine does that include codemasters aswell?

 Codemasters will have to work this out now with Warner.  Lhey have the rights to distribute the game and the servers in GB and other areas. However the Turbine parts will belong to Warner and who knows what happens to code masters, all they do is the billing and access,  Turbine still does the client and the game.

yayitsandy

Warner Brothers brought out DC Comics some years ago now . Many of the arguements being made here were made about that aquisition at the the time . At the end of the day DC was and is run as as subsidiary company .If anything its output improved and expanded . I doubt much will change in regards to Lotro if anything there might be a bit more financial muscle behind the game . I hope the cash shop does'nt happen .It works well in DDO but I think it would be a disaster in LOTRO also it would effect those of us who play on the european servers . Its a great community I hope they don't wreck it .