Dungeons-and-dragons-online posts

It's Bulletstorm release day. How many of you bought it today? Also how many of you checked out the Dragon Age 2 demo? Today sure was busy in PC gaming land:

• Dungeons and Dragons Online celebrates its fifth anniversary this week with new content and special events.
• Steam has a new minor update for Team Fortress 2, Counter-Strike: Source, Day of Defeat: Source and Half-Life 2: Deathmatch.
• Steam also has an automatic update for Star Ruler.
• A new entry in the official Bethesda Podcast has been released with company PR head Pete Hines answering fan questions.
• A new Kickstarter.com campaign has started to help fund the Museum of Art and Digital Entertainment in San Fransisco.

By far one of the best and most loved PC games is Dungeon Keeper where you played an evil fantasy villain trying to protect his lair from pesky heroes. While we may never get a true continuation of that series, publisher Kalypso Media has just announced plans to release a game, titled simply Dungeons, that bears more than a little resemblence to Dungeon Keeper.

Due out in the first quarter of 2011 by developer Realmforge, Dungeons has you playing, natch, a fantasy villain who wants to lure pesky heroes into traps. You will be able to build your perfect Dungeon with the help of your goblin workers. You can then capture the heroes' soul energy for your own uses and you may need it to rise up (or down as the case may be) to defeat the three Dungeon Lords that oppose you in the game.

Developer Turbine took what many thought was a big risk in 2009 by turning their fantasy MMO Dungeons and Dragons Online from a subscription-based game to a free-to-play title. That move turned out to be highly successful so Turbine is doing it again with their other major MMO game Lord of the Rings Online which will move to a free-to-play business model this fall. This will be a worldwide move for the game with Codemasters handling the game's European side.

The move to a free-to-play model will be much like how D&D Online changed with Turbine letting folks play the main game for free with additional content (expansions, quest packs, items, etc) available via an in-game store for additional money. Players will still be able to access everything in the game with a subscription fee. Players who want to see what the new Lord of the Rings Online will be like can enter the beta program which will begin on June 16. When the game makes the transition to the free-to-play model it will also add some new content, including new starting areas, a new region to explore and more.

Even the very name of Dungeons and Dragons Online conjures up images of going underground to fight off monsters. However in the upcoming content update to Turbine's free-to-play fantasy MMO, the game is going to take to the skies. Specifically if you join a powerful enough Guild in the game you can choose to purchase an airship as your guild's headquarters.

Yes, soon players will be able to fly around in D&D Online's version of a 747, complete with a number of customizable decorations. The next content update, which will be released on June 28, will also add the Carnival of Shadows adventure pack with four new quests centering on a mysterious and creepy traveling carnival (hey is there any other kind?).

Most of the time, developers of massively multiplayer games keep their subscription numbers a closely guarded secret. However the trade organization the NPD Group this week released a new look at the number of US MMO players and what games they are playing.

The survey, which was based on responses from 19,000 gamers in January 2010, still shows Blizzard's World of Warcraft as the king of the MMO space with 30 percent of the respondents saying they are playing the game. Jagex's free-to-play MMO Runescape is at the number two spot with 10 percent. However the number three spot went to Turbine's Dungeons and Dragons Online with 8 percent. It's a huge jump compared to past surveys and is most likely due to Turbine's decision to switch the game from a subscription only business model to free-to-play. Our sister site Massively has even more info on the NPD Group MMO survey.

Last night's surprise (and extremely late) news story on MMO game developer Turbine being acquired by Warner Bros. has now yielded some more info, according to the Boston.com web site (Turbine is based in Boston). According to their unnamed sources Warner Bros. paid $160 million to purchase Turbine. That amount includes "sums to be paid to Turbine shareholders in future years if the company meets certain financial targets."

While Turbine has never officially announced how many players they have for their subscription-based MMO games Asheron's Call and Lord of the Rings Online, the story says that Turbine admitted to having over one million players for Dungeons and Dragons Online, which moved to a free-to-play business model last year. Also Martin Tremblay, the current president of Warner Bros. Interactive, stated in the story they plan to work with the Turbine team to develop more games. Warner Bros. is home to The Matrix movies; the MMO based on the films, The Matrix Online, shut down in 2009. Warner Bros is also home to DC Comics. The super hero MMO DC Universe Online, is currently in development at Sony Online.

One of the biggest independent developers of MMO games has just been bought by an media conglomerate that is continuing to expand as a game publisher. The Boston-based Turbine announced today that it has been acquired by Warner Bros. Home Entertainment. Specific financial terms were not disclosed but Warner Bros' parent company Time Warner had previously invested in Turbine alongside a number of other venture capital companies.

Turbine, formed in 1994, is best known for their newest MMO games, the free-to-play Dungeons and Dragons Online and the subscription-based Lord of the Rings Online. Turbine's acquisition by Warner Bros. means that the publisher now controls all of the game licenses in the Lord of the Rings franchise (it previously acquired the PC and console game rights from Electronic Arts).

In their press release today, Warner Bros stated that in addition to their games, they also wanted access to Turbine's digital publishing platform along with their social networking tools. Warner Bros. hints they may use Turbine's tech in areas other than games.

It was considered a risky move for Turbine to change their business model for Dungeons and Dragons Online from a monthly subscription basis to a free-to-play model with both micro-transactions and subscription options. Well, it seems to be working out quite well, thank you. Since the switch happened in September, Turbine says the new D&D Online has brought in 1 million new players.

While the game is generating revenue via micro-transactions from players who purchases items, adventure packs and more from the in-game store, the subscription portion of the game has also doubled since the relaunch. Turbine says that revenues for the game have shot up 500 percent since the move. Specific subscription and financial numbers were not revealed. Turbine says it plans lots of updates and will offer new adventure packs for the game in 2010. One update will be adding optional support for DirectX 11 graphics.

Developer Turbine's decision in 2009 to turn their fantasy MMO Dungeons and Dragons Online from a subscription business into a free-to-play game has apparently been successful. This week the developer pushed out the third content update since the switch was made last fall.

The update includes four high level dungeons along with two new in-game events. There's also the new Casual gameplay mode which allows for both single players and groups of players to have a more casual gameplay experience (whatever that might mean). But what about that promised DirectX 11 graphical update? We contacted Turbine and their PR rep told us, "Turbine is currently working to implement the technology for DX11, but we haven't yet announced a timeframe for its release."

Atari is already facing a lawsuit from developer Turbine over Atari's alleged actions with the Dungeons and Dragons game license. Now D&D's current owner Hasbro has also filed its own lawsuit against Atari, claiming "five different breaches of their licensing agreement" for the D&D game rights.

According to Hasbro's press release, Atari may have sought to enter a "sublicensing relationship" with another publisher, Namco Bandai. Hasbro says this is a violation of its agreement with Atari, saying, "We have been working for several months now to reach resolution with Atari, and they have left us with no other choice than to pursue legal action." Hasbro is looking to terminate its D&D game license as well as "compensatory damages for economic losses suffered."

Atari has already responded to Hasbro's allegations and sent Big Download an official statement which can be read below in full:

Atari has had a long and rich history with the Dungeons and Dragons franchise, investing millions of dollars into numerous critically acclaimed and commercially successful games that have generated significant revenue for Hasbro. Hasbro has resorted to these meritless allegations, in an apparent attempt to unfairly take back rights granted to Atari. Atari has sought to resolve the matter without cooperation from Hasbro. We regret that our long-time partner has decided to pursue this action. Atari will respond appropriately through its legal counsel in court.