The lights are on
Turbine games, the studio behind Lord of the Rings Online has been hit with layoffs.
According to a report from Gamasutra, a number of employees have been let go. Turbine's parent company, Warner Bros. Interactive, offered the following statement:
As part of our normal business process, we’re routinely looking at the strategic alignment of our company. 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.
It's unclear how many employees were released from the company.
Lord of the Rings Online moved from a monthly fee to a free to play model in 2010.
[Via: Gamasutra]
Our TakeIt's always tough to hear about layoffs. Lord of the Rings Online might not be the most prominent MMO, but it seems like it has been experiencing consistent success. Our thoughts are with those that have found themselves unemployed.
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Best of luck to them. I played LOTRO for a long time and I loved my time with it.
One does not simply layoff it's employees!
From what I've seen LotRO has been the more stable of Turbine's properties with a very consistent and devoted fanbase. I would speculate that DDO may have been a factor. When DDO first released as F2P it had relatively little competition which has changed dramatically over the years. I've always enjoyed Turbines games and hope they do well with future projects.
It's also worth mentioning that they have positions advertised as open and are hiring for some major positions.
That's a shame. WB Games is pretty successful when it comes to games, but I don't really think they're very interested in MMO's... or at least LoTR Online. It's cool that they've kept it alive for so long, but it doesn't seem to be a priority for them. I wonder if Turbine has anything else going on right now? Good luck to the employees.
They could bring this game to PS4 and the One.
LOTRO isn't the only MMO Turbine runs. Dungeons and Dragons Online is under them as well, it is probably less successful than LOTRO. if the layoffs were from a certain MMO division, my bets would be on DDO.
Though it pains me to say this, because I play the game fairly often, DDO is riddled with bugs and is of a lower quality than LOTRO in terms of polish and scope and content. Shame, because I want Turbine to turn MORE attention on DDO, not less.