Turbine sues Atari over Dungeons and Dragons Online licensing

[reposted from Joystiq]

Stick with us, because this could get confusing: Courthouse News reports that Turbine - the Massachusetts-based developer behind the Dungeon and Dragons Online MMO - is suing Atari, publisher of the title. At issue is Turbine's claim that Atari has "breached a licensing agreement" related to the development of the free-to-play Dungeons and Dragons Online Unlimited. Turbine says that while it has spent millions developing the franchise "and continues to invest money to operate and maintain the service," Atari "acted unreasonably in its efforts to promote and distribute [Dungeons and Dragons Online] and failed to devote the necessary resources to it."

So, Atari continued to accept payments ("including future royalty payments") from Turbine for the Dungeons and Dragons Online "sublicense" though, Turbine alleges, Atari had a "strategy" to either "terminate Turbine as part of a shakedown" or "proceed with termination in bad faith to benefit from its own competing product at Turbine's expense." We can assume that "competing product" is Atari's upcoming Champions Online MMO, being developed by its recently acquired in-house MMO dev Cryptic Studios.

So, to recap: Atari wants to terminate the license agreement with Turbine to develop and maintain the Dungeons and Dragons Online MMO franchise, including the just-announced "Unlimited" free-to-play variant. Turbine says that such a termination threatens its "past investment" in the franchise and the "goodwill" it's developed with the DDO playerbase, and those they expect to play DDO Unlimited. And now, it's up to the courts!

Turbine sues Atari over Dungeons and Dragons Online licensing originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 26 Aug 2009 11:45:00 EST. Please see their terms for use of feeds.

http://www.joystiq.com/2009/08/26/turbine-sues-atari-over-dungeons-and-dragons-online-licensing/

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Free Dungeons & Dragons Online Encounters Delay [Delay Of Game]

[reposted from Kotaku]

Dungeons & Dragons Online's transition into free-to-play game enters a 10x10 room. Up ahead is its original August release date. It rushes forward...pit trap! Saving throw failed, one month delay.

Dungeons & Dragons Online was set to become DDO Unlimited next week in North America, morphing from subscription-based game to a new free-to-play model, but it seems that Turbine isn't quite ready to make that leap. The transition is now scheduled for September 9th, 2009. "We've had a tremendous response to DDO Unlimited from the players and press who are participating in our beta program," said Fernando Paiz, Executive Producer of DDO Unlimited. "We've been holding a series of live events as part of the beta program and have seen an unprecedented level of participation from players. While we are very pleased with the performance of the game and are excited about the response from the players, we are committed to delivering a high-quality experience. We feel that more time is needed to deliver on this commitment. As a result, we are delaying our launch to ensure that we can support the massive increase in players that we are expecting and deliver them a free to play experience like none other."

As an aside, 9/9/09 is also the date that will see many hopelessly devoted Sega fans praying for a new Dreamcast console. It is a day for fantasy roleplay!

http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/kotaku/full/~3/jNXVkGeSqyU/free-dungeons--dragons-online-encounters-delay

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Turbine hiring details for console MMO development

[from Gamasutra via Joystiq]

Half-confirming earlier rumblings, Turbine has gone on record to state that they are actively developing a console-based MMO. It's not known at this time whether the title is, as rumored, a cross-platform console adaptation of Dungeons & Dragons Online, Lord of the Rings Online, or whether it is an entirely new title.

According to Turbine Communications Director Adam Mersky, the company intends to fill 100 new positions in 2008, with 60 slots already filled thus far this year. A significant investment from media giant Time Warner is largely the cause of this sudden growth, which proves promising for the MMO developer.

http://feeds.joystiq.com/~r/weblogsinc/joystiq/~3/310086317/

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Turbine Console-idation In Future

(from Kotaku)

When we heard this morning that Turbine was planning to put part of its $40 million Time Warner-led investment to work doing console MMOs, we wondered if a console version of Dungeons & Dragons Online or Lord of the Rings Online could be in the works.
Alas, when we spoke to Turbine's communications director Adam Mersky today, he confirmed Turbine is "actively developing a title for console," but declined to specify.

"We've hired over 60 people since the beginning of the year," said Mersky, and 40 more job postings for the project are currently waiting to be filled. "The people that invested in us, Time Warner... one of the media giants, getting into the MMO fold, and that's obviously a big deal," he said. "They also have a huge distribution network... that may bear fruit for us."And that investment, Mersky said, makes Turbine "well funded for a good time into the future," and he told Kotaku a bit more about what the company plans to do with that money. GGB capital, another of the recent investors, has a "huge footprint in China," Mersky said. Right now, LotRO is ramping up for a launch in China this year or early next, while its closed beta just finished in Korea. Asia is a huge market for MMOs in general, Mersky said, and "that's a big thing for Turbine."

DDO is doing well too," Mersky said, "It's over two years old which is something to be said for a lot of MMOs." The marketing push we've been hearing about as a possible indicator that DDO may move to consoles partially hinges on new content updates planned for the remainder of the year, he said, both revamps of old content and new content, including new starter experiences.
"It's a good time for that franchise," said Mersky. "Atari has turned itself around, brought in a lot of talented people recently, and we're in active dialog with them to do good things for DDO." DDO is also set to get Direct X 10 by the summer, Mersky said. As for LotRO, the team is ramping up for the Mines of Moria expansion. Another book update in July is coming to close out Volume 1 and pave the way for the new expansion, and Mersky said Turbine will publish a full expansion every year for the game.

For how long? Turbine has the license to make MMOs based on the Tolkien universe until 2012, with options to extend until 2017.

Part of the investment dollars are going into new technology - Mersky points out that new players coming into the game late currently have to tuck in to catch up on a long patching process, but he alluded to proprietary tech in the works that may remove the sort of snafus that often occur in client-based computing.

Turbine has its eye on open worlds and user-generated content, too: "We're working on tech to let people... enable self evolving worlds," he said. "The idea is, we have these immersive, beautiful 3D worlds and they're designed by professional artists - but how can we let people create content in those... without 'suburban sprawl,' allow them to create gameplay environments." Nothing immediate to announce on that front, said Mersky, but that's a direction Turbine is very interested in going, too.

http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/kotaku/full/~3/309124479/interview-turbine-confirms-console-project-talks-future-plans

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