Warner Brothers Home Entertainment said today it has acquired Turbine, which it describes as the largest privately-held online gaming studio in the US. Turbine is best known for creating Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPG), including Dungeons & Dragons Online; Eberron Unlimited, and The Lord of the Rings Online.
‘Turbine is a leader in online entertainment and a strong strategic fit for Warner Bros. as we continue to broaden our games portfolio and development capabilities,’ said Kevin Tsujihara, president, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group. ‘Turbine’s renowned online game development and publishing expertise will help us develop additional online product offerings, while also providing us with new and innovative ways to market and communicate with our consumers.’
This is all about Warner Brothers ensuring that it holds all the rings (oops sorry, I meant cards) in the Lord of the Rings franchise. Previously it held all except the MMORPG rights.
‘We have been looking to expand access to our online worlds to more players and more markets,’ said Jim Crowley, president and CEO, Turbine. ‘This acquisition is very exciting because it allows us to expand globally while continuing to focus on creating spectacular online games that our loyal fans and players have come to expect.’
Turbine also has a social networking platform to integrate games with other third-party social networks.
In 2007, Warner Brothers. acquired TT Games, developer of the Lego-based game franchise, and then in 2009, added Snowblind Studios in order to build its own Lord of the Rings games franchise. It will release the first title called ‘War in the North’ in 2011. The studio also purchased the assets of Midway Games which published the Mortal Kombat franchise in 2009.