Egad Turbine

Turbine is refocusing on free-to-play mobile games??

For the last couple of months I’ve been trying to force myself (unsuccessfully) to play LotRO with the sole intention of leveling my 51 Hobbit Hunter (my only character over level 20-something) through Mines of Moria and the rest of the story content I keep hearing so much about. I’ve been trying to do this because I-like I’m sure a lot of other LotRO players-worry that Turbine isn’t going to renew their Tolkien license in 2017 and the game is going to shutter. I didn’t think that was likely to happen, but it was a possibility.

Well now it seems my fears are more than just fears. If Turbine’s announcement doesn’t just scream out “LotRO is going to end in 2017” I don’t know what would. Surely they’re not going to bother renewing what I imagine is a very expensive license just to keep a game running in maintenance mode? Unless maybe one of these new mobile games is going to be a Lord of the Rings-themed game.

To me, Turbine is always going to be the company that brought us Asheron’s Call, which was my first MMORPG. Oh man.. are they going to shutter Asheron’s Call too?? Surely they’ll be able to afford to keep that running. Even if I never play it, it’s comforting to know that I could play it.

Well, I guess the lesson here is to redouble my efforts to level my LotRO character as fast as possible.