LOTRO and DDO Sold; Asheron's Call (and AC2) Shutting Down End of January

[Osmeric]

http://www.pcgamer.com/turbine-moves...-closing-down/

Turbine is selling LOTRO and DDO to newly formed studio Standing Stone Games, with the publisher changing to Daybreak.

Meanwhile, AC and AC2 are shutting down at the end of next month.

[grandpab]

Damn...I'm gonna have to download AC and run around 1 last time.

[Edge-]

A bit surprised at the spinoff for SSG, but Turbine has been struggling for a while so it's not really that surprising that this finally happened (kinda like Broadsword taking over DAOC/UO from Mythic). Bummer that Turbine never managed to get support for private servers for AC1/2 like they had initially planned, hope the community can figure something out to keep the game alive somehow.

At this point, I fully expect Turbine to be closed pretty soon. It's super similar to what happened with Mythic. They lost their only active MMO's (that weren't super popular, much like LOTRO/DDO) and transitioned into a mobile studio, only to close down after their first mobile game (an Ultima spinoff in name only) tanked and didn't even make it out of beta. Considering Turbine has apparently been working on something in the mobile category for while now and they will no longer have any active MMO's on their roster as of Jan 31, I can't see them sticking around too much longer.

I'm a bit concerned about DBG getting back into publishing again given the bullshit that's gone on with them over the years (I say again because SOE used to publish for many years before eventually getting out of the business), but I'm hopeful that things go well. SSG has already talked about the possibility of character model overhauls for LOTRO, and I hope to shit the follow through. The character models being so god awful are one thing that's kept me from ever really getting into the game.

[Gorgodeus]

good ole Daybreak. Where games go to die: see EQNext

[Edge-]

good ole Daybreak. Where games go to die: see EQNext

A game has to live to die, and EQN never even lived : /

[Valeron]

Doesn't say they are sold, just moving. And Daybreak is just the publisher, yeah I'm trying to put in a silver lining, but they haven't closed any of their older properties have they?

[Deleted]

Damn...I'm gonna have to download AC and run around 1 last time.

This. Spent lots of time there.

[Arenis]

Mmmhh reminds me of how Gunz was passed from Maiet to Ijji to Aeria, and now it's dead... I doubt LotRO will be alive for long . History tends to repeat itself.

[Wilian]

I wish LotRO will survive properly. It was in many ways an MMO way ahead of it's time and still remains one of my favourite MMO's on the market.

[Jtbrig7390]

I hope both LOTRO and DDO stay around, I don't like to see any game shutdown even if I don't like them.

But fuck Daybreak Games, I am still 100% salty over EQN,EQLM and H1Z1. Even more so with what they did to H1Z1.

[babalou1]

Damn...I'm gonna have to download AC and run around 1 last time.

Im going to do the exact same damn thing.

I miss the game and have hoped for years that another AC game would come about.


Dark-Fyre of LC

[Cosmic Janitor]

With the oversaturation of the market I have to wonder how most of them manage to stay online in the first place.. or why some people still try to make them?

[xenogear3]

With the oversaturation of the market I have to wonder how most of them manage to stay online in the first place.. or why some people still try to make them?

Despite all the fanboys want you to believe, keep servers up costs very little money.

The last 2 "major" LOTRO patches are clearly low quality.
This thing can be done with 10 people.

[stellvia]

I wish LotRO will survive properly. It was in many ways an MMO way ahead of it's time and still remains one of my favourite MMO's on the market.

I should probably dabble in it again. I bought it at release, but kinda tapered off after the first month or two. The atmosphere was great, but the group mechanics were lackluster and I just got busy with other things. I had a Champion I think? To the mid L30s. If I remember correctly I should still be sitting around on top of like Weathertop Mountain or Flattop Mountain or something. Assuming they still had my account data, of course.

[ro9ue]

Feels like the Dark Ages for MMOs. Nothing really exciting on the horizon besides Crowfall, and my hard EQ nostalgia will make me at least try Pantheon. EQN was aborted. Lots shut down/being sold off. There are a few big games out there like GW2, FF14 and ESO, but I don't see them really generating any new hype for themselves anymore and it just seems death is inevitable.

Legion definitely saved WoW a bit for a while, but really I worry where it can go from there.

Yikes.

[Fayolynn]

So sad when I first heard about this. Spent so may hours running around Dereth back when I was in high school. I wish they had managed to get private servers set up and I would have loved to see an AC with modern graphics.

Such a fun and lore rich game, I'm going to miss it.

[Deleted]

While I love Lord of the Rings franchise, I could never get into that game. It just felt really boring and generic and apparently hasnt aged well. Maybe they'll reboot it with a new engine or at least make it more fun to play (without making it into another WoW clone). Heres hoping

[Belize]

A game has to live to die, and EQN never even lived : /

Careful, we might start an abortion debate :P

OT: Oh god.

[Katchii]

LotRO was great. Only thing I didn't like, but completely understood from a business perspective, was the piecemeal way of selling content you basically needed to level. Get through the starter zones and get sent to the next area only for the first quest giver to prompt a pop-up that basically said "oh you want to quest here? pay $5."

Makes sense business wise, but is utterly immersion breaking and disheartening from a players perspective (IMO) to have the real world and it's need for money plopped into this NOT real world game at every conceivable place....unless you're a subscriber, which I'm not going to sub for LotRO, to many other sub only or even sub-optional games that IMO are just better and more well worth that money.

[xenogear3]

LotRO was great. Only thing I didn't like, but completely understood from a business perspective, was the piecemeal way of selling content you basically needed to level. Get through the starter zones and get sent to the next area only for the first quest giver to prompt a pop-up that basically said "oh you want to quest here? pay $5."

I agree.

Nearly all "free" MMORPGs, leveling is free.
Raid and endgame gear are not.

LOTRO is confused.
It thought that people enjoy doing "kill 20 xxx" and "collect 30 yyy" quests.