LOTRO and DDO Move Over to Standing Stone Games - Lord of the Rings Online - MMORPG.com

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LOTRO and DDO Move Over to Standing Stone Games - Lord of the Rings Online - MMORPG.com

Lord of the Rings Online News - The Lord of the Rings Online and Dungeons & Dragons Online have been acquired by Standing Stone Games, a newly-formed independent game studio made up of the same groups that have been working on LOTRO and DDO for years. We remain committed to both games, and are thrilled to be able to take these games in exciting directions for a long time to come. Standing Stone Games will operate as an independent studio, with global publishing support from Daybreak Games.

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garrett

Not fully surprising. But seems like a good move for the community

BillMurphy

Forgive our slowness on this news… Without Suzie we are pretty much snails without her. So much so that we thought we would be fine her by letting her go see Star Wars this afternoon thinking that Monday would have no news of significance… We were wrong.

Your regular super fast and scheduled programming will be back as soon as the death Star is destroyed.

this message brought to you by Bill's iPhone through Siri.

Lumiere123

Well this Message is only old about 1 hour, so no to late

DarLorkar

I just wonder on the IP and or licenses. Do not see anything mentioned on those. If they have control of IP's ok...but if not?

Future seems uncertain until those questions get answered it seems to me.

Grakulen

BillMurphy said:

Your regular super fast and scheduled programming will be back as soon as the death Star is destroyed.

You need to tag this shit with a spoiler alert dude!

SBFord

Grakulen said:

BillMurphy said:

Your regular super fast and scheduled programming will be back as soon as the death Star is destroyed.

You need to tag this shit with a spoiler alert dude!

That's not a spoiler, just so you know. *rolls eyes*

Murmaider

It's not surprising news to hear I believe.
LoTRO has hit a slump and I think this transition just may help.

I believe that by SSG acquiring the games, they see something to be made of it and just might fork over the money to retain the rights to the IP.

It's smart to keep the IP if they are willing to put in the work to turn the game around and make it similar to what it once was.

I'm curious about the devs they have that have worked on these games.
Are they from SoA days? MoM days or when it went downhill with the Mirkwood expansions and such?

Po_gg

garrett said:

Not fully surprising. But seems like a good move for the community

Well, fully surprised here   (on my defense, I was mostly in TSW lately)

After the patch I logged in for a quick overview - took a bit longer, I'm usually carried away in Frostbluff...
So far there are no real changes, just cosmetic ones: TP is now Lotro Points (changed the logo too) but the balance is unchanged. The WB intro animation was changed to SSG.
The EULA was switched to the default DBG version (was funny to read about Krono in the monetization section ). Hopefully they will add a similar All-Access, with one sub for LotRO and DDO...

And, pretty much that's it. Frostbluff is crowded, the new winter items are... khm. The steed is a bit odd. Maybe just me...

toljar

I wonder if this will affect the Asheron's Call IP as well? It seem Turbine gave up on it's flagship MMO long ago, and this just seems like it is just a nail in the coffin...

Alomar

Honestly, I would of been excited if they were completely new developers and not a continuation of current ones under a new title. I haven't seen anything impressive from Lotro since the Moria expansion, waiting for the next attempt at a lotr mmo.

Pigglesworth

Daybreak Games will destroy this and suck all the cash they can, like they did with EQ and EQ2.

SpottyGekko

I think one thing is crystal clear now, and that is the fact that Turbine have no plans to make any further MMO's.

You don't let an experienced crew go if you are planning on new MMO projects, you reassign them.

LucienRene

I'm gonna have to subscribe to their games, at least for the short term, to give them some (probably much needed) support.

Mendel

So, former Turbine employees formed Standing Stone Games, backed by Daybreak, and have bought the MMORPG library of Turbine to continue as uninterrupted?  I wonder which came first, Daybreak's involvement or the transfer of the IP to SSG?

So, when are Turbine Points / subscriptions going to be converted to the Daybreak All-Access system?  The Turbine system allowed the player to earn TPs in game (a paltry amount) or purchase them.  The Daybreak coins are only available via purchase with points / month.  Resolving this could be interesting.  There's a very good chance that toes will be trodden upon.

gervaise1

toljar said:

I wonder if this will affect the Asheron's Call IP as well? It seem Turbine gave up on it's flagship MMO long ago, and this just seems like it is just a nail in the coffin...

Doubt it. As far as I know the plan for Asheron's Call to continue on player run servers haven't changed. However that has been the case for more than 2 years (longer?) and I'm pretty sure it hasn't happened yet.

syriinx

Pigglesworth said:

Daybreak Games will destroy this and suck all the cash they can, like they did with EQ and EQ2.

Yeah, damn DBG. they actually focus on multiple facets of an MMORPG for their upgrades.

LOOK OUT, LOTRO might get group and raid content! Disaster!

Also, EQ2 is FAR more subsciber friendly than LOTRO. When I play LOTRO as a VIP I feel like they constantly have their hands out wanting more money. Other than a popup when logging in you can play EQ2 without any interaction with cash shop mechanics.

I cant think of a publisher less likely to push for P2w. I dont even think DBG has jumped on the lootbox bandwagon yet (I could be wrong on this though)

syriinx

Gorwe said:

Do you get LoTR:O and DD:O as part of Daybreak subscription now?

I would assume no because of the logistics of trying to determine who gets the money. Would be awesome if they could work something out though.

gervaise1

Murmaider said:

It's not surprising news to hear I believe.
LoTRO has hit a slump and I think this transition just may help.

I believe that by SSG acquiring the games, they see something to be made of it and just might fork over the money to retain the rights to the IP.

It's smart to keep the IP if they are willing to put in the work to turn the game around and make it similar to what it once was.

I'm curious about the devs they have that have worked on these games.
Are they from SoA days? MoM days or when it went downhill with the Mirkwood expansions and such?

They are not being acquired though. WarnerBros. - to their credit I suspect - have offered the existing team(s) the opportunity to take over the running of the games under a new company that they have probably set up for them. The alternative? Probably closure at some point in the future.

So WarnerBros. have basically done what EA did with DAoC (who set up Broadsword for the DAoC team).

Now in the case of DAoC EA continued to collect subscriptions for Broadsword making things very easy. And DAoC has continued.

Could be that WarnerBros are cutting the cord though given the announcement that they will be partnered with DBG for publishing (PotBS did the same and said they regretted it.)

As far as any future IP rights go maybe something has been arranged. If not it sends a very clear message that there is no big pot of WB money to be had.  

SpottyGekko

syriinx said:

Pigglesworth said:

Daybreak Games will destroy this and suck all the cash they can, like they did with EQ and EQ2.

Yeah, damn DBG. they actually focus on multiple facets of an MMORPG for their upgrades.

LOOK OUT, LOTRO might get group and raid content! Disaster!

Also, EQ2 is FAR more subsciber friendly than LOTRO. When I play LOTRO as a VIP I feel like they constantly have their hands out wanting more money. Other than a popup when logging in you can play EQ2 without any interaction with cash shop mechanics.

I cant think of a publisher less likely to push for P2w. I dont even think DBG has jumped on the lootbox bandwagon yet (I could be wrong on this though)

Hold onto your hat.

DBG are publishing, not developing. That means they're handling accounts and billing primarily, along with some CS and PR on the side.

DBG have enthusiastically embraced RNG lootboxes in H1Z1 and also PS2 iirc.

syriinx

SpottyGekko said:

syriinx said:

Pigglesworth said:

Daybreak Games will destroy this and suck all the cash they can, like they did with EQ and EQ2.

Yeah, damn DBG. they actually focus on multiple facets of an MMORPG for their upgrades.

LOOK OUT, LOTRO might get group and raid content! Disaster!

Also, EQ2 is FAR more subsciber friendly than LOTRO. When I play LOTRO as a VIP I feel like they constantly have their hands out wanting more money. Other than a popup when logging in you can play EQ2 without any interaction with cash shop mechanics.

I cant think of a publisher less likely to push for P2w. I dont even think DBG has jumped on the lootbox bandwagon yet (I could be wrong on this though)

Hold onto your hat.

DBG are publishing, not developing. That means they're handling accounts and billing primarily, along with some CS and PR on the side.

DBG have enthusiastically embraced RNG lootboxes in H1Z1 and also PS2 iirc.

I stand corrected.  Hopefully they dont spread into the RPGs.  

I am aware that they are only publishing, which is why its silly for anyone to be concerned.  They can handle the publishing aspect just fine.  And SoE CS has always been above average for the genre (not that that is a huge compliment).  Their PR is atrocious though, SSG better be handling that one.

LynxJSA

syriinx said:

Yeah, damn DBG. they actually focus on multiple facets of an MMORPG for their upgrades.

LOOK OUT, LOTRO might get group and raid content! Disaster!

  If you want to sell people on the idea of DBG creating multifaceted content, you might not want to use the most static, rote, and uninspired content in MMOs as an example. 

SpottyGekko

Gorwe said:

syriinx said:

Gorwe said:

Do you get LoTR:O and DD:O as part of Daybreak subscription now?

I would assume no because of the logistics of trying to determine who gets the money. Would be awesome if they could work something out though.

Yeah, I'm in no hurry, but it'd be awesome if they got added to DBG All-Access.

I suspect that the two points systems will remain separate.

Those points are a liability to the company, so SSG would have to pay DBG to take over that debt. It's "money already spent" by Lotro's players.

Theocritus

LucienRene said:

I'm gonna have to subscribe to their games, at least for the short term, to give them some (probably much needed) support.

I wouldnt pay more than a month at a time....Both of these have been in trouble for awhile and theres little doubt they will both be shut down....Its a matter of when not if

observer

I'm assuming Standing Stone Games acquired the licenses for both franchises?

bigcheeseuk

Maintenance mode here we come