Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Turbine pits Balrog against Lich King

By Mass High Tech Staff

Video Gallery

In their own words: Chris Dyl, CTO, Turbine Inc.

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Online game developer Turbine Inc. today released the Mines of Moria expansion pack to its game The Lord of the Rings Online for the North American and European markets.

The release of Mines of Moria — a content upgrade to its massively multi-player online role playing game (MMORPG) based on the works of J.R.R. Tolkien — comes less than a week after industry-dominating Blizzard Entertainment of California released its Wrath of the Lich King expansion to its MMORPG World of Warcraft.

According to Jeffrey Steefel, executive producer of Lord of the Rings Online (LOTRO), the new content includes areas and creatures familiar to readers of the books or fans of the movies, such as Moria, the balrog and the forest of Lothlorien. Steefel was quoted recently as saying that he wasn’t concerned about the close launch dates of the expansion packs from Turbine and Blizzard, as the games had different audiences.

Turbine, which also makes the games Asheron’s Call and Dungeons and Dragons Online, has raised a total of $88 million in venture financing.

In early October, Turbine opened a West-Coast studio in Redwood City, Calif. The new creative unit features former Flagship Studios co-founder Dave Brevik as creative director, Jeff Lind from Ping0 as engineering director and Matt McKnight of Sniper Studios as studio director. Later in the same month, Turbine announced it had leased new space in Dedham and would seek to hire 50 new employees.

In April, Turbine landed $40 million in a third round of venture capital funding. Granite Global Ventures led the Series C financing, which included previous investors Highland Capital Partners, Polaris Venture Partners, Tudor Ventures and Columbia Capital. Granite Global managing partner Hani Nada has taken a seat on the Turbine board.