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In their own words: Jim Crowley, CEO, Turbine Inc.
Online fantasy-based video game maker Turbine Inc. is serious about its expansion plans, with a goal of taking its game development into the real world of consoles, such as Microsoft Corp.’s Xbox 360, and a hiring burst that would nearly triple the number of employees from fewer than 225 earlier this year to 600 by late 2009.
The move from developing only massively multiplayer online role-playing games for the PC to include console games would be part of a three-pronged growth strategy that CEO Jim Crowley said includes developing a technology that would drastically reduce the time it takes to download massive multiplayer online role-playing games.
Also, Turbine, which produces the games Asheron’s Call, Dungeons and Dragons Online and Lord of the Rings Online, plans to introduce user-generated content to its games as an “adjunct experience” — providing digital tools for subscribers to create their own game content.
Turbine’s first job would be to port its existing MMO titles to consoles before expanding to newly developed games.
The three-part plan is expected to increase the number of Turbine customers fivefold, Crowley said.
In 2007, online games in North America generated revenue of $1.6 billion. The figure is projected to surge to $3.8 billion by 2012, according to Boston-based research firm The Yankee Group.
Meanwhile, the console game market generated between $4.5 billion and $5.5 billion in software sales alone, Yankee Group analyst Mike Goodman said.
The wider adoption of consoles such as Sony Corp.’s PlayStation and Microsoft’s Xbox lines by 20 million users has made the cross-platform approach — or games that can be played on consoles or on PCs — more viable compared with previous years, he said.
“If you can capture 1 percent of the console market, you’re an extremely successful MMO,” Goodman said.
Cross-platform games garnered $600 million in revenue last year. But the market size is projected to increase sharply to $4.7 billion by 2013, according to DFC Intelligence, a California-based research and consulting firm.
But producing a cross-platform MMO isn’t easy. Switzerland-based Funcom NV, a Turbine competitor, released “Age of Conan” after months of delay — but still didn’t include a cross-platform version, as planned.
Turbine, founded in 1994, has raised $88 million in venture financing. In April, the company landed $40 million in a third round, which Crowley said will help pay for the expansion plans. The company is looking at whether the Westwood facility can be expanded to accommodate the additional workers or if Turbine should relocate, he said.
Board member Michael Hirshland, a general partner at VC firm Polaris Venture Partners, said the plan is for Turbine to be one of three or four players in the cross-platform business. “The question isn’t ‘Is there a market?’ ” he said. “The question is ‘Who can execute’ (with the technology)?’ ”
Turbine competitors include Funcom as well as California-based firms Sony Online Entertainment and Electronic Arts Inc., and Korea-based NCsoft Corp. Such developers are likely to join Turbine to take advantage of cross-platform gaming, DFC CEO David Cole said.
“Now is the right time to be jumping in,” he said. “I think it’s going to become more common.”
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