Lotro is moving to a new developer

[Kack]

https://www.lotro.com/forums/showthread.php?649786-Standing-Stone-Games-Transition-FAQ
https://www.lotro.com/forums/showthread.php?649784-Standing-Stone-Games-A-message-from-Rob-Ciccolini

We don't know much about the changes in dev teams or the new developers actual plans for the game(albeit they've said that they intend to keep the game running for a long time). But all in all, I'd say, as a long time player that it's looking a lot more optimistic than it has been for the past few years with Turbine

[Kack]

Only time will tell. I think most of the old developer team is remaining and the new owner stated that they intend to keep the game running for a long time to come, but hoping that the new owner is more interested in financing the game bit better than what WB did. All in all, I'm carefully optimistic :P

[₠мємєтє¢ዙ]

This actually is a bad thing, This means that lotro is moving into matinence mode due to the fact that Warner Bros and Turbine have seen it fit to release the game title because they believe its worth selling now, being this close to mordor can only mean 1 thing, It may be Mordor only, this was completely unexpected and rude of turbine to not tell us at the beginning of the month. These sort of things are decided way ahead of time and then announced publically half way through transition. It just seems very disturbing for Warner Bros, a corporation that is in many movies and game deals, sell a game title that is 1 of its kind regardless of how old it is. If this isn't the end, well good. If it is however, i blame Sapience and the HD and Rohan Development teams, they killed the game.

[Kack]

Lol, maintenance mode... Similar things have been screamed on official forums for years now. If anything, it's good thing Turbine sold the game to a developer who is focusing on MMO's for PC. If you have missed, past 2 years have showed Turbine shifting towards mobile platforms. So it was, if not expected, atleast not that big of a surprise.

[₠мємєтє¢ዙ]

Actually no, i think i am right. look at this.

https://trademarks.justia.com/872/43/standing-stone-87243951.html

Standing Stone was just made on the 29th of november this year, they knew about this crap for quite some time.

[Alexzay]

Indie studio for mmo. Fingers crossed

[₠мємєтє¢ዙ]

I'm just putting question to how this developer, "Persuaded" a big time corporation with its name in big movies to allow such a transition when in fact this is the only MMO title of its kind. Money from a new developer is kind of sketchy in this scenario because Warner just Sold it off in a heart beat. Which begs the question, if this new indie development company had the money to interest warner, we may be okay. But this last month creation and swap is a SKETCHY SKETCHY move.

[kalameet]

that mean no more turbine?

[Ebyl]

Turbine is moving to mobile games. The people who will keep working on LoTRO are made up of the same people currently still working on it.

Things have actually been looking up for LoTRO over the past year. They haven't been getting worse. Considering what Turbine has for future plans (mobile), this isn't much of a surprise. It's good at least some of the same people will be working on the game.

[MMOGamer71]

Originally posted by Norwiegen Crimelord:

This actually is a bad thing, This means that lotro is moving into matinence mode due to the fact that Warner Bros and Turbine have seen it fit to release the game title because they believe its worth selling now, being this close to mordor can only mean 1 thing, It may be Mordor only, this was completely unexpected and rude of turbine to not tell us at the beginning of the month. These sort of things are decided way ahead of time and then announced publically half way through transition. It just seems very disturbing for Warner Bros, a corporation that is in many movies and game deals, sell a game title that is 1 of its kind regardless of how old it is. If this isn't the end, well good. If it is however, i blame Sapience and the HD and Rohan Development teams, they killed the game.

It means that Turbine is following WB's goals to be a mobile game developer and moving away from MMORPGS which they stated in the Spring of 2015.

Edit:
TaaaaDaaaaa !!!

http://www.warnerbros.com/studio/news/warner-bros-interactive-entertainment-announces-extensive-mobile-games-line

http://kotaku.com/turbine-the-boston-based-studio-behind-games-like-lord-1783309794

[Ebyl]

It's not moving into maintenance mode...ffs. Herpa derpa.

[Kack]

Yep. And past few years have seen ups and downs, mostly downs. Epic battles, trait trees, pvp changes to name a few downs. But then again the storytelling and landscapes have been amazing and the newest group content(after Erebor and epic battles) has been refreshing and surprisingly good!

I see this as a positive thing when hopefully motivated company takes over the development, instead of Turbine and their shifting towards mobile gaming...

[Ebyl]

Assuming this group knows how to properly run a game studio business, this is actually another positive development for LoTRO.

We have known for a while now that Turbine is planning to move mainly into the mobile market, but we have had no answers as to how they would actually keep developing LoTRO and DDO considering that fact. This is the answer. The people working on the games have formed their own studio to continue developing the games.

When you consider that LoTRO and DDO were part of a studio that had stated they were moving to mobile development, exactly what was going to happen to the MMO's was a big question. This is the best possible outcome - now the games are in the hands of people who have been working on them for a while (with some new blood too, no doubt) as part of a stuido formed to run the MMO's. That's about all you can ask for, really.

[₠мємєтє¢ዙ]

Okay what actual reasoning is behind this mobile game development transition when it makes no sense for turbine to actually release the title, you figure turbine is just going to recieve more money for mobile game development anyways and yet you say they're still going to be people who were working on lotro that are coming with. So all of a sudden Warner invests more money into turbine as a title is leaving, and yet Turbine can't just keep the title and work on mobile games too? Given the fact that their completely sponsered by a big time blockbuster firm? Which has done shady crap in the past. Yet are completely willing to let a videogame title which is the only mmo of its kind. To a new recently as of the 29th of november created development team. Who got had the money for this decision? Because there is no way Warner let them off scott free. This is still Sketchy as hell.

[Ebyl]

You are making sooo many assumptions with little to no data... Yikes.

[₠мємєтє¢ዙ]

What about when turbine wasted about 10 million or something around the sort on a new game and scrapped it because they didn't like what they saw? That money could have gone into lotro and they just walked away? These are completely valid assumptions.