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Turbine Lands $30 Million in Venture Capital
Gamasutra has word that MMOG maker Turbine, developer of AC, AC2, DDO, and MEO, has succeeded in raising another round of venture capital for current and future projects. From the article: "The company has recently been strengthening its publishing and rights hold on its internally-developed products. It assumed complete control of development and publishing on Middle Earth Online, after finalizing a deal with Tolkien Enterprises and VU Games, and also took full control of Asheron's Call from Microsoft following the company's first round of financing. Of Turbine's major new MMO worlds, Dungeons & Dragons Online is due to launch later in 2005, and The Lord Of The Rings: Middle Earth Online will launch some time in 2006."
I'm not so sure how Turbine managed to get so much funding, given how Ascheron's Call 2 has a pretty dismal showing in the MMORPG market -- if you take a look at the the lastest MMORPG charts, you can see that although Ascheron's Call 1 peaked at 120,000 subscribers, Ascheron's Call 2 only peaked at ~50,000 subscribers, and dropped precipitously after May 2003.
Just as my two cents, I'd prefer to see funding go to the makers of Anarchy Online, Planetside, or Eve Online, which are also indie, but have a much better subscriber base & track record.
There is a difference here you are not metnioning. SWG an MO are games derived from movies. With some notable exceptions, games derived from movies haven't done too well overall. There are a number of reasons for this.
This logic may apply to Middle Earth Online. It has been published in book form and varios movies have been made derived from it. There was even a pen and paper RPG for it I think.
I think the problem with developing interactive entertainment from movies or books is that the story is already told. Especially in the case of the Matrix or Lord of the Rings, you know the ending. Gaming is usually about experiencing something new, with some element of unkown results.
However, Dungeons and Dragons is a game, and the biggest RPG ever in any format. If there were one license/brand I could think of that would have a draw it would be that one.
I don't know how Turbine does it. That's like their 3rd or 4th round of VC funding for the company, and AC1 and AC2 were mediocre at best. I agree that DDO and LotRO are powerful franchises, but if someone gave a company like Playnet (makers of WWII Online) that much money they could go out and buy the rights to make games based on powerful franchises, too.
Bruce