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Turbine, Inc. - All News

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Monday - July 11, 2016
Saturday - October 18, 2014
Wednesday - May 27, 2009
Tuesday - December 16, 2008
Monday - October 13, 2008
Saturday - June 07, 2008
Thursday - June 05, 2008
Sunday - April 27, 2008
Thursday - October 04, 2007
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Monday - July 11, 2016

Turbine, Inc. - Goes Strictly Mobile

by Aubrielle, 05:04

Sad news for us PC gamers. Warner Bros. has decided to turn Turbine, the studio famous for Lord of the Rings Online and D&D Online, into something that only makes mobile games.

Turbine has accomplished a great deal since the company's founding in 1994 (then CyberSpace) - they not only brought us two Asheron's Call titles, Dungeons & Dragons Online, The Lords of the Rings Online, the MOBA Infinite Crisis, and a handful of expansion packs, but they also proved that a transition to a free-to-play business model could be very lucrative and substantially change the company's outlook.

However, since their acquisition by Warner Bros. in 2010, they've been hit by multiple rounds of layoffs, with the latest one apparently happening today. And that's not even the worst of the news - according to an official statement from Warner Bros., they intend to turn the studio into a mobile game developer, which would be in stark contrast to what their core audience has come to know from them:

Turbine is transitioning into a free-to-play, mobile development studio, and as a result we are eliminating some positions. The Lord of the Rings Online and Dungeons and Dragons online games will continue to operate as they do now. Re-focusing and reducing the studio size was a difficult decision for the company, and we are grateful to all of the Turbine staff for their considerable contributions.

A strange move, if I've ever seen one.  Furthermore, if this thread is to be believed, "the programming staff has been cut down to three people on LoTRO and three people on DDO", which doesn't bode well for those of us who are fans of either (or both) games.

Source: GameBanshee

Saturday - October 18, 2014

Turbine, Inc. - Layoffs Hit Studio

by Couchpotato, 03:05

Joystiq has information that Turbine has laid off some staff this week.

Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment confirmed today that a round of layoffs will soon affect The Lord of the Rings Online developer Turbine, Inc.

"As part of our normal business process, we're routinely looking at the strategic alignment of our company," a Warner Bros. representative told Joystiq.

"Unfortunately, in order for us to invest in growth areas at Turbine, we have to eliminate some positions. These are always tough decisions, which we don't approach lightly, but it's crucial that Turbine is structured in a way that reflects the current and coming marketplace."

Wednesday - May 27, 2009

Turbine, Inc. - Expands Leadership Team

by Dhruin, 00:43

Turbine sent us the following PR:

TURBINE EXPANDS LEADERSHIP TEAM

Nate Jones to Lead Corporate and Business Development for Online Entertainment Leader

WESTWOOD, MA – May 26, 2009 – Turbine, Inc., the premier creator and operator of massive, persistent online worlds that foster powerful social gaming communities, today announced the appointment of a new Vice President of Corporate and Business Development. Nate Jones will be responsible for overseeing worldwide content and licensing partnerships, joint ventures and mergers and acquisitions for the company.

“Nate brings extensive strategic planning and corporate dealmaking experience to our executive team that will be crucial as Turbine scales its global operations,” said Jim Crowley, President and CEO of Turbine, Inc.  “We continue to add firepower to our senior team and Nate’s strong record both as an investment banker and as a senior executive in the gaming industry will be a great asset to our growing business and we are delighted to have him join our team.”

Most recently, Jones held the position of Vice President of Strategy and Corporate Development at Glu Mobile Inc., one of the largest publicly traded mobile game publishers.  While at Glu, he drove the acquisitions of Mig and Superscape as well as strategic initiatives focused on the iPhone and other gaming platforms.  Prior to his tenure at Glu, Nate was a Vice President at Lazard, one of the world’s preeminent financial advisory firms, where he focused on technology and media mergers and acquisitions and advised both established and emerging organizations in the video games industry including Microsoft, EA, Jagex and Major League Gaming, among others. [...]

Tuesday - December 16, 2008

Turbine, Inc. - Redundancies

by Woges, 17:41

Article at gamesindustry.biz on redundancies at Turbine.

"Yesterday, Turbine took steps to align our business to successfully achieve our strategic goals in the years ahead," said a spokesperson for the company.

"As part of this transition some of our talented colleagues will not be with us going forward."

When asked about specifics of the redundancies, Turbine decline to discuss the number of staff let go.

"We are a privately-held company and will not discuss the details regarding the number of our team that were affected. These changes were made across the entire organisation in both our MA and CA offices," said the company.

The company's California outfit was only established in October, and is headed up by former execs from the now defunct Flagship Studios.

Monday - October 13, 2008

Turbine, Inc. - West formed, Dave Brevik is Creative Director

by Woges, 18:22

Blues News has the PR here.

WESTWOOD, MA – October 13, 2008 -- Turbine, Inc., a premier creator and operator of massive, persistent online worlds, today announced the opening of a new studio located in Redwood City, CA. The new studio will help drive Turbine’s rapid growth and further accelerate Turbine’s goal of becoming a global leader in online entertainment. Turbine also announced the hiring of Dave Brevik as Creative Director, Jeff Lind as Engineering Director and Matt McKnight as Studio Director of its new California studio. 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.

Saturday - June 07, 2008

Turbine, Inc. - Jim Crowley on New Investors @ MMORPG

by Woges, 21:41

More information on that investment story at MMORPG.

In a conversation about the announcement, Crowley told MMORPG.com that the move is not much different from the way that any other company raises capital. They are simply selling equity, which is how they grow their business as they have “major initiatives” coming up.

In terms of their new backers, GGV, among other things, provides the company with more Asian market experience, as the company has what Crowley referred to as “feet on the ground” in Asia. The Asian marketplace may be more important than ever for Turbine as they prepare to launch Lord of the Rings Online in Korea in the second half of 2008 and a later Chinese launch late in the year or in 2009 and GGV provides, “an expertise that most Western companies don’t have organically.”

That brings us to talk a little bit about the more recognizable of the pair of companies in Time Warner. Now, just to give you a little bit of background on Time Warner, they are (obviously) a media giant and among the many projects that they have produced over the years was a little film trio directed by a guy named Peter Jackson. Of course, I’m talking about the Lord of the Rings Trilogy.

Obviously, the partnership is one that makes sense for both parties. The overlap of IPs alone, without going into too much detail. With the announcement so new, Crowley was unable to give any specifics, but it stands to reason that there might be some cross-promotional work and maybe even a new Turbine IP (Though this is more speculative on my part than anything).

Thursday - June 05, 2008

Turbine, Inc. - Investor Confirmed as Time Warner

by Woges, 02:53

Turbines recent $40 million investment was partly sourced from Time Warner; confirmed at Develop.

Rachel Lam, senior vice president and group managing director of Time Warner Investments, added: “Our investment in Turbine is an important addition to Time Warner's entertainment initiatives. Online interactive entertainment is a huge growth market and we are very excited about Turbine, its unique capabilities and the obvious opportunities that exist with our own broad portfolio of IP.”

Sunday - April 27, 2008

Turbine, Inc. - NYCC Panel on LotRO & DDO @ MMORPG

by Woges, 00:17

Craig Alexander & Kate Paiz are recapped by Keith Cross.

 The talk started with Kate Paiz giving us an overview of DDO’s history since it launched two years ago to a lukewarm reception.  There were a number of complaints from fans early on.  There was no wilderness adventuring, the early game was a bit dull, many veteran D&D players weren’t fond of the Eberron campaign setting which was relatively new at the time, and there were no dragons.  To many, running around Eberron as a Warforged and not slaying dragons in the wilderness just didn’t feel like D&D.  The game received a lot of flak early on from nerds like me, because the promise of a persistent world with many different players all playing at the same time sounded like it would be the truest incarnation of D&D in an electronic game space that had yet to exist.

Over time it turned out that that flak was mostly undeserved.  We’re in a funny place in the MMO industry, where we have games from the earlier generations of MMOs which are still running and getting updates after being around for more than a decade.  Yet if a new MMO doesn’t do well immediately, people just assume the game is dead.  In other areas of the gaming industry, games don’t have that sort of longevity.  They get shipped out the door, they get the spotlight for a few months or a year, and then they fade out, and it’s on to the next big thing.  MMOs have a much longer shelf life and are never truly finished; they are always a work in progress.  My point is that it doesn’t make sense to dismiss an MMO just because it doesn’t have a spectacular launch.  Judge an MMO based on how it is right now, not how it was.

Thursday - October 04, 2007

Turbine Entertainment - New CEO @ WarCry

by Inauro, 23:06

WarCry has word of a shake up at Turbine Entertainment.

Turbine has undergone a corporate shake-up, according to sources within the company and some quiet edits to their own website. The official company page now lists Jim Crowley as President and CEO, removing all mention of Jeff Anderson.

Source: WarCry

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