Over the past week, Turbine has posted over a dozen job opportunities for those in the Boston area. As part of the growing stable of video game companies under the umbrella of Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and with two well-received and highly successful F2P products under its belt, it comes as no surprise that the company continues to flourish.

However, two of the recent job postings point towards Turbine spreading its wings and attempting something new. To date, Turbine has been a steadfast PC developer, creating nothing but persistent world PC titles since the original Asheron’s Call in 1999. That will be changing soon.

The company is currently looking for two Software Engineers capable of working “closely with game designers and artists to understand the goals for a console game system.” Furthermore, candidates are asked to have “Shipped at least one console game for the XBox 360 or PlayStation 3” and to have been a part of the entire title’s lifecycle.

Basically, Turbine is looking for a pair of staffers that have been through the highs and lows of console development.

Why? Well, no one is sure at this juncture. We do know that Turbine has been working on a console product with Twisted Pixel for some time. That being said, specifics remain scarce, even after 2+ years of work. It’s safe to assume that hiring of console devs, gameplay specialists at that, mean the project is progressing smoothly.

The job postings do not specify which product the future employees will be working on. Nor does it incline us to believe it’s even a new product, rather than a port of Turbine’s back catalog of titles. Today’s consoles can easily handle DDO or LotRO, five and four year old titles, respectively (assuming Turbine can work out a pay system with Sony/Microsoft, a notoriously difficult proposition). Ports seem unlikely though. Good money is on the Twisted Pixel joint project. It’s all speculation at this point.

We’ll likely never know if the decision to investigate the console viability of its products came at the company’s own prerogative, or the suggestion of WBIE. It’s a question we, as humans, can’t help pondering after acquisitions. Actually, we do know. The original announcement of the console project was made before the acquisition.

See a screen capture of the Job Summary and Responsibilities behind the cut. Continue Reading

Turbine, previously the largest independant MMO company, has been acquired by Warner Brothers Incorporated. They’ve been huge investors in the company for years, but this latest exchange is expected to value Turbine at about $160 million.

Turbine currently produces and maintains several MMOs, including Lord of the Rings Online, Dungeons & Dragons Online, and Asheron’s Call. This isn’t the first time Warner Brothers has purchased a major video game company; they bought Midway Studios, developers of the Mortal Kombat series, as well as TT Games, developers of the Lego Star Wars and Lego Batman games. This gives them a huge monopoly on LOTR games, as Warner Brothers already owns the license for all non-online Lord of the Rings games, and Turbine had an exclusive license for all online LOTR games.

All of the intellectual property that Turbine developers now has access to might be even more exciting. The combination of Warner Brothers properties and Turbine developers has fantastic potential.  Could we see DC Comics franchise characters in future MMOs?

Over the past two weeks I’ve been spammed with news coming from Turbine Entertainment.  Topics have run the gauntlet of the company’s games, from Lord of the Rings Online to Asheron’s Call.  Yes, Asheron’s Call, the game that started the company off on the right foot way back in late 1999.  The title is still going strong despite its failed sequel, Asheron’s Call 2.  Strong enough to warrant further development.

The company announced today that the ten year-old game is going to receive a new playable race and some further features.  Asheron’s Call is not one of the MMOGs that I have ever followed, but it’s pretty cool so see the game getting some love this far out.  Not many details were revealed on the Shadow race, but Turbine did create a teaser video.  Perhaps the more astute Asheron’s Call players can fill us in on the hidden details and the potential impact?

Packed alongside the new race are a few other new features, including the addition of a new type of magic (Aetheria), multi-slot armor, Barbers and their ability to change hairstyles and tailoring.  Tailoring allows characters to move the look of armor from one piece to another, which sounds pretty cool.

Hit the jump for the announcement from Turbine that has the MMOG-friendly Internet in an uproar. Continue Reading