Howdy, Stranger!

It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!

Warner Brothers buys Turbine...

2»

Comments

  • yayitsandyyayitsandy Member Posts: 363

    Originally posted by 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.

    It depends when Codemasters contract to distribute the game in the E.U. expires .Turbine may then decide to take over but with or without the WB buyout that may have happened anyway .

  • JackdogJackdog Member UncommonPosts: 6,321

    bought the lifetime sub with launch so I have already gotten my moneys worth from the game, 36 months of play for 200 bucks equals 5 bucks a month. Right now still enjoying it and looking forward to the next expansion which most feel will be Rohan. Time will tell whether this wil be good or bad, right now I am simply waiting to see and thinking happy thoughts..

    I miss DAoC

  • PapadamPapadam Member Posts: 2,102

    Sad news! I always liked Turbine for being a small indy company who wanted to compete against the big dogs but I guess they finally realized that you can't with Activision/Blizzard and EA/Bioware out there.

    The good new is that hopefully this mean that they wont have to have alot of partners like Codematers/Midway when releasing new games.

    Doubt it will have much impact on LotrO/DDO though.

    If WoW = The Beatles
    and WAR = Led Zeppelin
    Then LotrO = Pink Floyd

  • erictlewiserictlewis Member UncommonPosts: 3,022

    Originally posted by Papadam

    Sad news! I always liked Turbine for being a small indy company who wanted to compete against the big dogs but I guess they finally realized that you can't with Activision/Blizzard and EA/Bioware out there.

    The good new is that hopefully this mean that they wont have to have alot of partners like Codematers/Midway when releasing new games.

    Doubt it will have much impact on LotrO/DDO though.

    Codemasters and Midway were middle men and did the server side/box distribution stuff. Midway had already been cut out of the loop at the release of mom they are long since gone.   Codemasters was also the money subscription guy for turbine kind of like an operator in overseas country.  

    So the real questions are.  What happens to codemasters I.E. billing and what not since Warner already has offices and can handle all that stuff world wide. I seam to remember something being said that Turbine was going to pull away and ge the licensing back from codemasters sometimes back.  So I am sure this is will affect codemasters big time as in they will not handle lotro/dnd or anything turbine.   

    That leaves us of the real quesion of of what happens to the dev team and who gets to call the shots.

  • PapadamPapadam Member Posts: 2,102

    Originally posted by erictlewis

    Originally posted by Papadam

    Sad news! I always liked Turbine for being a small indy company who wanted to compete against the big dogs but I guess they finally realized that you can't with Activision/Blizzard and EA/Bioware out there.

    The good new is that hopefully this mean that they wont have to have alot of partners like Codematers/Midway when releasing new games.

    Doubt it will have much impact on LotrO/DDO though.

    Codemasters and Midway were middle men and did the server side/box distribution stuff. Midway had already been cut out of the loop at the release of mom they are long since gone.   Codemasters was also the money subscription guy for turbine kind of like an operator in overseas country.  

    So the real questions are.  What happens to codemasters I.E. billing and what not since Warner already has offices and can handle all that stuff world wide. I seam to remember something being said that Turbine was going to pull away and ge the licensing back from codemasters sometimes back.  So I am sure this is will affect codemasters big time as in they will not handle lotro/dnd or anything turbine.   

    That leaves us of the real quesion of of what happens to the dev team and who gets to call the shots.

    Eh Im well aware of Codemasters position since I play lotro from Europe and my point was that this probably means that Turbine wont have to rely on third party companies when releasing new MMOs like they had to with lotro/ddo since WB can probably take care of that. WB was also the publisher for MoM.

    I know there was rumors of WB buying Codemasters but I tihnk some asaian company did instead. Hopefully WB/turbine can get the right for ddo and Lotro in Europe back from Codemasters like they mentioned before. But then we have the lawsuit against Atari to make things even more complicated. Maybe this can give them some more muscles in that case.

    Hopefully it means that LotrO will get a big marketing push around the Hobbit movie maybe with an expansion focusin on thoose areas of ME.

    If WoW = The Beatles
    and WAR = Led Zeppelin
    Then LotrO = Pink Floyd

  • Params7Params7 Member UncommonPosts: 212

    Hopefully they replace the current Turbine crew and pump in some better end-game content, bring back group content for 1-25 levels (when its all solo, can you blame the people who say they got bored with this game?), and improve LFG options like WoW did.

     

    In other words, I hope WB takes COMPLETE control of LoTRO. Its got nowhere to go but up. And if that doesn't work, put the game out of its misery, its an insult to LoTR legacy.

  • Death1942Death1942 Member UncommonPosts: 2,587

    Originally posted by 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?

    Because Time Warner owns the other part of the rights to the Lord of the rings universe.  By buying Turbine they now own all of the rights to the Lord of the rings universe (not sure what rights those are but i am guessing it's games and possibly movies)

    That being said Turbine is far from a failing company.

     

    I heard this deal went down for around $160 million.  Not bad for Turbine

    MMO wish list:

    -Changeable worlds
    -Solid non level based game
    -Sharks with lasers attached to their heads

  • DrednaughtDrednaught Member Posts: 115

    Originally posted by 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.

    NCsoft also took on all the devs that were working on CoX at the time,only Statesman (jack emmert) left,the main reason why Champions Online blows goats ;)

    Happy 6th Birthday to CoX :)

    Gaming since 1985 and still going strong.

  • erictlewiserictlewis Member UncommonPosts: 3,022

    Originally posted by Params7

    Hopefully they replace the current Turbine crew and pump in some better end-game content, bring back group content for 1-25 levels (when its all solo, can you blame the people who say they got bored with this game?), and improve LFG options like WoW did.

     

    In other words, I hope WB takes COMPLETE control of LoTRO. Its got nowhere to go but up. And if that doesn't work, put the game out of its misery, its an insult to LoTR legacy.

     The sad thing is marketroid came out and said nothing is going to change other than they now have added mussle.


    "Many of you have asked what this means for your game experience. The simple answer is that we don’t expect much to change for the foreseeable future. We remain committed to each of our games as we move forward. This change in corporate ownership is not expected to affect our current product portfolio. We’re still the company that brings you AC, DDO, and LOTRO.



    Most importantly, not only do we remain fully committed to our core franchises but will seek to grow them aggressively going forward. We’re looking forward to putting our newfound muscle behind your favorite games as we grow into our new role within the WB family of companies.



    Overall, this change is a great thing for Turbine. We’re excited for the future of our games and we hope you’ll share the excitement with us in the months and years ahead."


     


    All I can say is this does not help anything unless they can learn to code new things, as they are currently stuck in a rut, and they ego that some of the dev team has, will not let them see past radiance and the LI mistake.   i was hoping that when we got somebody new in charge they could take a look at that and try to change things.


     


    All this was in the long run was to make sure Warner had anything Lord of the Rings tied up and in their coner.

  • Shadow1990Shadow1990 Member Posts: 22

    I just got back recently to LOTRO ( Brandywine). And must say that I enjoy this game more, then I did before. And I'm planning to stay here till SW:OR or FF14 will come out.

    I was hit by massive surprise when it was announced that WB got Turbine. But that's not really all that bad thing.

    Now, if they can make it right - > they will provide the funding for maintainence of the servers etc, while the dev. core will push the new content, as well as next expansion pack.

  • avalon1000avalon1000 Member UncommonPosts: 791

    I hope we see more new content like we did a couple of years ago.  It seems that the updates are coming slower and slower and the quality of the updates is worse. 

  • RansomDentonRansomDenton Member Posts: 111

    Well they are heavily editing their threads on their forums now. Very little to no negative comments. Their official thread went from 87 pages on the 22nd to 15 today.  I know this is part and parcel but when I posted negatives reactions to the WB purchase on the official WB purchase thread my post got yanked in under 4 minutes. This is a sad omen for what is to come.

  • erictlewiserictlewis Member UncommonPosts: 3,022

    Originally posted by RansomDenton

    Well they are heavily editing their threads on their forums now. Very little to no negative comments. Their official thread went from 87 pages on the 22nd to 15 today.  I know this is part and parcel but when I posted negatives reactions to the WB purchase on the official WB purchase thread my post got yanked in under 4 minutes. This is a sad omen for what is to come.

    Yes what they did was to lock the original thread several hundreds of posts thus allowing that post to fall down several pages. 

    The new thread is heavly modified any negative comments are deleted right away. They have become very draconic about any negative post about that. I had a total of about 10 post that made it to the shreader box, and 2 posts that were edited and not by me.  I also notice any thread with wb in it orther than the main thread gets locked right away too.

    I find it funny they got so much on the defence about the wb however you have the same 8 or 9 folks who time and again are allowed to launch into the personal attacks and break the lotro forum rules over and over, and all that ever happens is the thread gets locked.

  • green13green13 Member UncommonPosts: 1,341

    The interesting thing about this is that Warner Bros are a public company.

    That means we may actually finally get real subscription numbers from this game.

  • erictlewiserictlewis Member UncommonPosts: 3,022

    Originally posted by green13

    The interesting thing about this is that Warner Bros are a public company.

    That means we may actually finally get real subscription numbers from this game.

     Dont expect those numbers any time soon.  They still have to close out this quarter and it will not be till next quarter till we actually find out anything.

    I suspect its not going to be good.

  • RansomDentonRansomDenton Member Posts: 111

    Originally posted by erictlewis

    Yes what they did was to lock the original thread several hundreds of posts thus allowing that post to fall down several pages. 

    The new thread is heavly modified any negative comments are deleted right away. They have become very draconic about any negative post about that. I had a total of about 10 post that made it to the shreader box, and 2 posts that were edited and not by me.  I also notice any thread with wb in it orther than the main thread gets locked right away too.

    I find it funny they got so much on the defence about the wb however you have the same 8 or 9 folks who time and again are allowed to launch into the personal attacks and break the lotro forum rules over and over, and all that ever happens is the thread gets locked.

    What a shame. I became a lifetimer because of the community, the way the devs listen and changed things that were obviously wrong (the horse demount comes to mind), and the game itself. The game has been suffering a bit and with the Hobbit pushed off till late 2011 but within actual reason 2012 or later the influx of new accounts was just simply not on the horizon. Yes I hope WB markets the game but it is clear mircros are coming, dumbing down is coming...the NGE revisited may come. What a shame.

  • bezadobezado Member UncommonPosts: 1,127

    Originally posted by 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.

    No joke this is exactly what I thought of when I heard this news.  Large corps are all about bottom line and if they aren't pulling profits high enough then they do massive cuts.  What I expect to happen since AC is a struggling game with marginal profits at best is that it will be shut down or worse go to F2P with an addition of a item mall system.

    No chance for a AC3 now that Turbine is gone, they wouldn't have the insight to consider spending the money to start another AC after knowing AC2 died.  The risk is to much, but Turbines risk would of been nothing to do it considering they would of known what needed to be done thusly giving it a chance to get started where as this new company would not even consider such a project I think.

  • RansomDentonRansomDenton Member Posts: 111

    Well it seems now all the WB posts and forums are down.

    Again one of my most valued portions of the game was, was, the community and the fact they would listen...I hope some of that still remains.

     

    PS I really and truely love this game and will stick with it but I am worried big time. I hope we all LEARN from the past *cough NGE*.

  • erictlewiserictlewis Member UncommonPosts: 3,022

    Originally posted by RansomDenton

    Well it seems now all the WB posts and forums are down.

    Again one of my most valued portions of the game was, was, the community and the fact they would listen...I hope some of that still remains.

     

    PS I really and truely love this game and will stick with it but I am worried big time. I hope we all LEARN from the past *cough NGE*.

     It is unfortunate that Wb as I cant call them turbine any more they don't deserve that right any more.  They have chosen to sqaush any post with WB even in them.  The LOTRO forums have been heavly moderated since the news rolled out.  I know several people who incurred the wrath of some gm's over it and even a few of us got dinged with negative rep over it on top of receiving a few warnings dirrectly.

    I wish they would have learned from the NGE but we already had the precursor SOM I equated to the CU.  The NGE is yet to come. I fully expect the item shop to show up in lotro, oh yea I got negative rep for posting that one, then my post was promptly pruned.

    I know that markettroid said things were not going to change, however I am sure WB will do wht they can to reap in the rewards, or canabilize and shut it down. 

    Only time will tell at this point, as we had a great game once but the past year its been circling the porclean bowl in a downward spiral 

  • KualaBDKualaBD Member UncommonPosts: 131

    Originally posted by erictlewis

    Originally posted by RansomDenton

    Well it seems now all the WB posts and forums are down.

    Again one of my most valued portions of the game was, was, the community and the fact they would listen...I hope some of that still remains.

     

    PS I really and truely love this game and will stick with it but I am worried big time. I hope we all LEARN from the past *cough NGE*.

     It is unfortunate that Wb as I cant call them turbine any more they don't deserve that right any more.  They have chosen to sqaush any post with WB even in them.  The LOTRO forums have been heavly moderated since the news rolled out.  I know several people who incurred the wrath of some gm's over it and even a few of us got dinged with negative rep over it on top of receiving a few warnings dirrectly.

    I wish they would have learned from the NGE but we already had the precursor SOM I equated to the CU.  The NGE is yet to come. I fully expect the item shop to show up in lotro, oh yea I got negative rep for posting that one, then my post was promptly pruned.

    I know that markettroid said things were not going to change, however I am sure WB will do wht they can to reap in the rewards, or canabilize and shut it down. 

    Only time will tell at this point, as we had a great game once but the past year its been circling the porclean bowl in a downward spiral 

    I think you misunderstood why Turbine was pruning posts.  They were not trying to squelch opinions and conversations.  They were simply trying to keep all the WB conversations, opinions, and discussions all in one official thread, which as far as I could tell was not being censored (except for removing rude posts asking for Devs to be fired, etc.).  This was an effort to keep the forums somewhat clean and organized rather than having hundreds of the same "What's gonna happen now?!" posts made by everyone who wants to start their own thread.

    Is it easier for my opinion to be seen when I start my own thread rather than post in the middle of someone else's 50 page thread?  Yes.

    Does it feel better for my ego when a thread I create gets more views and responses than someone else's thread on the same topic?  Yes.

    But really it's not necessary.  Everyone's opinion can be heard when combined in the same thread, even if it IS harder to stand out.  Do I agree with Turbine combining threads and keeping the forums clean?  Yes, though I DO think they went a little too far with it.  They should at least let there be one thread for each main topic, for example keeping Lifetime Membership, Future of the game, WB advertisements, etc.  But again, there really is no need for 20 different people to start 20 different threads on "OMG, Is WB gonna keep our Lifetime Membership or we gonna have to pay again?" threads.

    As for getting negative rep and reprimanded, the only time I saw that going on was when people started their own thread, the moderators closed it saying "Please give your input in the official thread here <link>" and then the poster would make ANOTHER thread on the same topic saying "OMG!  They clozd my first thredd so I made anuthr!", and then when that thread too was closed, the poster would make yet a third thread on the same topic with the predictable "I'm trying to talk abowt WB buying Turbine but they keep cencorzing meee!"

    Of course I exaggerated there on the quotes, but the idea was accurate.  When a person starts a thread, and is told politely to please use the already existing thread on the topic, and the poster refuses and keeps making more of his own, then in my mind they deserve the -rep and the reprimand.  This isn't kindergarden.  (By the way, I'm not saying this is what you guys were doing or got reprimanded for, I'm just saying those are the situations I saw.)

  • AndraxxAndraxx Member UncommonPosts: 256

    Originally posted by RansomDenton

    Well it seems now all the WB posts and forums are down.

    Again one of my most valued portions of the game was, was, the community and the fact they would listen...I hope some of that still remains.

     

    PS I really and truely love this game and will stick with it but I am worried big time. I hope we all LEARN from the past *cough NGE*.

    The 2 big threads were never removed. They were un-stickied after a few days and promptly fell off the front page. The most recent official thread for feedback on the WB purchase is currently on page 3 of the general discussion forum.

    A lot of people have posted concerns, but Turbine has stated they will release information when it is ready, and the majority of the playerbase is mature enough to wait and see, rather then continue with wild suppositions and hyperbole.

  • green13green13 Member UncommonPosts: 1,341

    Originally posted by Andraxx

    The 2 big threads were never removed. They were un-stickied after a few days and promptly fell off the front page. The most recent official thread for feedback on the WB purchase is currently on page 3 of the general discussion forum.

    Clearly they need to have a chat with the Cryptic folk. They're incredibly creative when it comes to forum censorship.

    What was it they did with their threads on microtransactions....?

    They collapsed them all into a single megatrhead - which outgrew any other thread on their forums - and then they quietly shifted the entire thread into an unlinked area in the German section of their forums.

    Unfortunately for them google could still find the thread, so it didn't stay hidden for long. But it was a good try ;)

  • erictlewiserictlewis Member UncommonPosts: 3,022

    Originally posted by Andraxx

    Originally posted by RansomDenton

    Well it seems now all the WB posts and forums are down.

    Again one of my most valued portions of the game was, was, the community and the fact they would listen...I hope some of that still remains.

     

    PS I really and truely love this game and will stick with it but I am worried big time. I hope we all LEARN from the past *cough NGE*.

    The 2 big threads were never removed. They were un-stickied after a few days and promptly fell off the front page. The most recent official thread for feedback on the WB purchase is currently on page 3 of the general discussion forum.

    A lot of people have posted concerns, but Turbine has stated they will release information when it is ready, and the majority of the playerbase is mature enough to wait and see, rather then continue with wild suppositions and hyperbole.

     Yes the both were unstickied.  One was locked.  The other thread got up to 22 pages long,  when it was allowed to drop it was only 15 pages.  So yes some editing and pruning is going on. 

    While I did not start any of the other threads they were valid concerns about lifetime memberships,  they were merged with the lager thread.  The new thread they were just deleted out of it totaly.

  • RansomDentonRansomDenton Member Posts: 111

    Originally posted by erictlewis

     Yes the both were unstickied.  One was locked.  The other thread got up to 22 pages long,  when it was allowed to drop it was only 15 pages.  So yes some editing and pruning is going on. 

    While I did not start any of the other threads they were valid concerns about lifetime memberships,  they were merged with the lager thread.  The new thread they were just deleted out of it totaly.

    To Quote HPL...

    "THIS is the testimony of all that I have seen, and all that I have learned, in those years that I have possessed the Three Seals of MASSHU."

    I have seen this and can affirm it to be the truth.

Sign In or Register to comment.