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

That’s right folks.  The amazing transformation of Dungeon & Dragons Online to the free-to-play model is going to be replicated.  Turbine (and its pair) is going to attempt to pull off the feat for a second time.  The developer will be launching a huge update to Lord of the Rings Online “this fall” that will complete the metamorphosis.  Interested parties will be able to partake in a beta program starting on June 16 (the second day of E3).  Head over to the official site for details.

The upcoming LotRO Store appears to be a clone of the DDO Store:

LOTRO will introduce Turbine’s innovative new pricing model that allows players to download the game and play for free, purchase expansions, quest packs, items, and account services a la carte from the new LOTRO Store, or join the VIP program to get unlimited access to all of the game’s content for one low price.

Considering the DDO Store saved DDO, even dramatically increasing its subscriber base, the new LotRO Store is a no brainer.  The transformation will be global.

No word on a name change.

And I have to ask, how pissed are the lifetime subscribers going to be?