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Warner Bros. Acquires Turbine

Posted by Soulskill on from the playing-catch-up dept.

NNUfergs writes with news that Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group has acquired Turbine Inc., creators of Lord of the Rings Online, Asheron's Call, and Dungeons & Dragons Online. Terms were not disclosed, but the Boston Globe claims the price was somewhere around $160 million. "Warner Bros. Interactive has bought a number of game development houses in recent years, in a bid to become a major power in video gaming. In 2007, the company purchased TT Games, a British firm that develops family-friendly products like Lego Star Wars and Lego Batman. In 2009, Warner Bros. bought the assets of bankrupt Chicago game company Midway, maker of the popular Mortal Kombat games. And earlier this year, it acquired a majority stake in Rocksteady Studios, another British developer, which created the hit game Batman: Arkham Asylum. ... Acquiring Turbine will give Warner Bros. total control over all future video games based on author J.R.R. Tolkien's beloved Lord of the Rings novels. Turbine holds an exclusive license to make an Internet-based game based on the books, while last year, Warner Bros. won a license to make non-Internet-based Tolkien video games."

6 of 57 comments (clear)

  1. I read by dandart · · Score: 1, Funny

    Ahh, I read "Warner Bros. Acquires Turbine" and thought "That's nice of them wanting to save the environment"...

  2. Re:Surprisingly Localized & Short Sighted Arti by Rogerborg · · Score: 2, Funny

    What the... they're acquiring "intellectual property" rights in order to actually use them to create something, instead of to sue other people for creating things? How deliciously old fashioned!

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    If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
  3. Re:There goes the neighborhood by beakerMeep · · Score: 3, Funny

    Looks like he censored "heel" actually. Not even the dirtiest part of a foot.

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    meep
  4. Re:that's all folks by beakerMeep · · Score: 3, Funny

    A good loony toons MMO would be sweet actually. Think of all the PVP with acme anvils and pianos.

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    meep
  5. Re:that's all folks by Remus+Shepherd · · Score: 2, Funny

    My first thought was that we are one step closer to Animaniacs Online.

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    Genocide Man -- Life is funny. Death is funnier. Mass murder can be hilarious.
  6. Re:There goes the neighborhood by vegiVamp · · Score: 2, Funny

    D@#% ? #33L ?

    What are you, some kind of DAMN pc gnome from HELL ?

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    What a depressingly stupid machine.