Turbine purchased by Warner Bros. Home Entertainment

I never realized when Alderon was destroyed by the Death Star in Star Wars Epsiode 4, that one of the citizens was screaming 'Sweet' as he watched the extremely bright laser head straight for him.

All I'm wondering is, will LOTRO still get its shiny new graphical upgrade promised with Directx 11? The high quality texture pack + Directx 9 to dx10 client made a large difference in image qualiy and brought up the graphics to as good as Age of Conan months and months before AoC was released.

DX11 mode for DDO and LOTRO has been touted about as long back as last September and in some ATI slides was targetted as Q1 2010. Ironically, on the forums, the Turbine representatives have also commented on this and said that if you break the year up into four parts. The first part being January, February and March. We're aiming for DX11 in Q1.

As anyone can tell, its past March and the update is overdue? Perhaps they were delayed producing Siege of Mirkwood(a recent lotro expansion added a sign-up for random party instancing system) similar to WoW's random roics party system.

I'm just hoping this aquisition doesn't delay the new DX11 mode even longer. I just recently upgraded my computer in anticipiation of this update. (5870)

We have no clue if WB will let Turbine continue to operate as normal (possibly even giving them access to more capital to develop/improve games) or if they will try to micromanage them and their games into oblivion.

Hopefully the former, but my hopes are not high.

@Rialle:
You only have to read the press release to answer that question, unfortunately:

"Additionally, the acquisition of Turbine provides Warner Bros. with access to a proprietary digital publishing platform that enables dynamic direct-to-consumer relationships, robust online merchandising opportunities and vibrant e-commerce functionality for online games. Turbine has also developed a social networking platform that can integrate their self-developed online communities with popular third-party social networks. Outside of the games arena, these platforms present unique opportunities for Warner’s other home entertainment businesses."

That e-commerce solution stuff almost sounds like Micro-transactions.

Buy your gear here at WB.com! Our movies suck, but, buy the newest romantic comedy "The girl and the horse who made her bf jealous" and we'll give you +20 radiance armour!

@Amana

The sheer volume of marketspeak BS in that statement makes me feel ill.

They will. They're the new 'boss'.
Being a privately-owned, independant studio meant a lot of good things for a Turbine customer. Now it's all in the hands of a large corporate.

Doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out where this will lead..
Another one bites the dust.

Refer to comment 5. :)

Don't see how that spells drama for suuuure you darned pessimists! :D

Hehe CindyL - I'd really like to agree with you on that one, but unfortunately I'd be hard pressed to find a reason :S

If you've ever worked for an organisation that has more than 500 employees, then you'll know how it goes.

A large company like WB isn't into this for the lore. They're not into it to make sure a few Tolkien fans are happy/ They're into it for one reason only: large profits - period.

Expect RMT in Lotro at the very least, plus I'm predicting some staffing changes within the next two months, which will also result in some game-changing mechanics and additions.

Mark my words (sadly).

@Amana

In other words, in six months I will be able to purchase my LOTRO toons a spiffy, Shadowfax Mount for $25 in the Blizza...err Turbine online store.

@Rialle:
It will have sparkles too. 'Celestilfax'