Turbine purchased by Warner Bros. Home Entertainment

Whether you see this as a positive or a negative, micro transactions are what online payments and subs are going to look like from now on. And that's everywhere with everyone, there is no escape.

In some cases this may actually be a better way to go. For example Wizard 101 and DDO have ways of making your money stretch by unlocking areas per amount. If you're a real casual player or play multiple mmos that's great.

EQ2 just announced a 5 dollar subscription for 3 days... It probably isn't that great right now, (and only for people with unsubbed accounts >

and I made the rest of my comment disappear.. :(

.. to continue, IF you could pay for 72 hours per month for 5$, that is going to work great for some people!

And that's just an example, micro payments isn't all just about sparkle ponies. lol. :P

Yes. They owned it and then sold it within about 3-4 months of its launch to Sony Entertainment Online when they saw that it wasn't profitable and they weren't sure of their ability to turn the property into a profitable organization.

I think what that could potentially mean is they'll do their best to make Turbine a success and failing that Turbine will probably be sold off or its properties sold off to a third party MMORPG company like SOE. If SoE every gets control of LOTRO I will be an instant unsubscriber. SoE completely ruined MXO. MXO is one title I would love to see remade with modern graphics and mmorpg systems though. You could make such good pre-scripted fighting animations.

Hmm, would it be worth creating an LOTRO console version at this point in the game? LOTRO's engine and gameplay mechanics are pretty dated by modern standards.

Most of the players I group with LOTRO mostly play LOTRO b/c they have a lifetime subscription and if its free 'why not?' kind of thinking or simply really enjoy PvE and have a loathing for PvE or simply love anything and everything to do with LOTR universe.

Really, the low-res lotro dx9 client can run on any store bought computer with even intel on-board graphics. The entry requirements are so low that nobody would buy a console with the intent to 'finally be able to play LOTRO as my pc couldn't handle those wicked graphics'.

Everything I heard the LOTRO rumor, it seems just that. A rumor. However, an LOTRO2 I could see having the potential for a console release. If somehow you could take all the content current in LOTRO and pump it into a new engine with revamped gameplay mechanics, graphics and a bit of new content. That would be worthy of a console/pc release.

Ohh, I just wanted to add, I wonder if LOTRO2 is a possibility since all the talk of the DX11 client. How LOTRO was the first MMORPG to offer DX10 support and how they wanted LOTRO to be the first MMORPG to offer DX11 support.

They mentioned the DX11 client way back in September in the ATI slides about the 5870 and titles with DX11 coming and had the DX11 option listed as Q1 2010. Literately, that almost 9 months ago and whose to say how long Turbine had been working on the client 'before' ATI gave gamers the first heads up.

9 months to a year is not only enough time to reasonably overhaul a game's graphics but almost enough time to generate a whole new engine/game if you already have almost all the art assets, storyline, quest databases, etc done. They've definitely missed the Q1 target date as we're into Q2. It'll be interesting to see what happens.

Thats because they knew they were getting sold out.

They would have to allow character transfers if they move to LoTRO 2. This was a storyline that is heading towards Mordor, I do not know how they will achieve that by bringing out an entirely new game. An expansion that costs a little bit more I can see that.

I doubt there will be a LOTRO2. If anything, Turbine's resources for a new game will likely be directed towards a WB-owned property.

I should clarify: by "console version of LOTRO," I only mean some Lord of the Rings property that is an MMO on a console. It's widely believed Turbine is working on such a game, which may or may not hold any similarity to the PC version of LOTRO. Most people expect (or should I say fear) a game more similar to WoW, with a bigger emphasis on PvP and a playable evil faction.

I honestly they are porting LOTRO to consoles, otherwise development would have remained the same (or increased, considering the new funding last year). Instead it's gotten weaker and weaker as Turbine is obviously working on a new project.

True, I believe everything in LOTRO has to be signed off on by Tolkien Enterprises (or whoever).

Which means that in a worst case scenario, if WB wants to push something into LOTRO that Tolkien Enterprises doesn't like, WB will just see it as a bother and make Turbine stop updating LOTRO or shut it down so they can focus on games based upon easier to exploit properties.