Turbine, Inc. (formerly Turbine Entertainment Software, Second Nature, and originally CyberSpace, Inc.) is an American computer game developer that develops 3D massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs). Turbine was founded by Johnny Monsarrat, Jeremy Gaffney, Kevin Langevin, and Timothy Miller as CyberSpace, Inc., changing their company name in 1995 to Turbine, Inc. In April 2007, Turbine released their most recent MMORPG, The Lord of the Rings Online . [2]
The United States of America (USA), commonly known as the United States or America, is a country composed of 50 states, a federal district, five major self-governing territories, and various possessions. At 3.8 million square miles, the United States is the world's third or fourth largest country by total area and is slightly smaller than the entire continent of Europe's 3.9 million square miles. With a population of over 327 million people, the U.S. is the third most populous country. The capital is Washington, D.C., and the largest city by population is New York City. Forty-eight states and the capital's federal district are contiguous in North America between Canada and Mexico. The State of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east and across the Bering Strait from Russia to the west. The State of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U.S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, stretching across nine official time zones. The extremely diverse geography, climate, and wildlife of the United States make it one of the world's 17 megadiverse countries.
A video game developer is a software developer that specializes in video game development – the process and related disciplines of creating video games. A game developer can range from one person who undertakes all tasks to a large business with employee responsibilities split between individual disciplines, such as programming, design, art, testing, etc. Most game development companies have video game publisher financial and usually marketing support. Self-funded developers are known as independent or indie developers and usually make indie games.
Massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs) are a combination of role-playing video games and massively multiplayer online games in which a very large number of players interact with one another within a virtual world.
Turbine was a privately held company backed by Highland Capital Partners, Polaris Venture Partners, and other private investors since 1998. On April 20, 2010, the company was acquired by Warner Bros.. [3]
Highland Capital Partners is a global venture capital firm with offices in Silicon Valley, Boston and Shanghai. Highland has raised over $3 billion in committed capital and invested in more than 225 companies. Investments include 2U, Ask Jeeves, Bromium, Gigamon, Handy, Lululemon Athletica, Lycos, Malwarebytes, MapQuest, Qihoo 360, Quattro Wireless, Rent the Runway, Shift, Starent Networks, Sybase, VistaPrint, Turbonomic, and WePay. Highland also serves as a mentor for future entrepreneurs through Summer@Highland, a program that provides students and university-affiliated startups with the environment and resources to take their initiative to the next level. They also help run a program for early stage security companies to explore their ideas and obtain customers called Cybersecurity Factory.
Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc., commonly referred to as Warner Bros. and abbreviated as WB, is an American entertainment company headquartered in Burbank, California and a subsidiary of AT&T's WarnerMedia. Founded in 1923, it has operations in film, television and video games and is one of the "Big Five" major American film studios, as well as a member of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA).
History
Turbine was founded in April 1994 by Johnny Monsarrat and fellow students at Brown University, as a project with the goal to create the world's largest game. [1] Monsarrat was hit by a car in 1994, which resulted in a payout he used to fund the company. In 1995 the company was based in his mother's house with 12 staff members. They found an office in Providence, RI, but later moved to Westwood, Massachusetts to better take advantage of the software engineers coming out of Boston's colleges. As CEO, Monsarrat used free food and office pranks [4] to keep staff motivated.
The company was originally called CyberSpace because "that seemed cool". Its name was later changed to "Second Nature", but since that was taken, "Turbine" was chosen. Asheron's Call was the company's first game. [5] It was notable for being the second 3D MMORPG, following the launch of EverQuest . Its most notable feature, designed by Monsarrat, was a "loyalty" system giving new and experienced players incentives to work together. The Olthoi was the first monster developed for Asheron's Call, designed by Joe Angell.
Asheron's Call (AC) was a fantasy MMORPG for Microsoft Windows PCs, developed and published by Turbine Entertainment Software. Though it was developed by the Turbine team, it was published as a Microsoft title until 2004. The game was set on the island continent of Dereth and several surrounding smaller islands and archipelagos on the fictional planet of Auberean. The game was played in a large seamless 3D virtual world which could host thousands of players' characters at a time.
EverQuest is a 3D fantasy-themed massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) originally developed by Verant Interactive and 989 Studios for Windows PCs. It was released by Sony Online Entertainment in March 1999 in North America, and by Ubisoft in Europe in April 2000. A dedicated version for macOS was released in June 2003, which operated for ten years before being shut down in November 2013. In June 2000, Verant Interactive was absorbed into Sony Online Entertainment, who took over full development and publishing duties of the title. Later, in February 2015, SOE's parent corporation, Sony Computer Entertainment, sold the studio to investment company Inception Acquisitions and was rebranded as Daybreak Game Company, who develops and publishes EverQuest to this day.
After Asheron's Call, the company went on to make a sequel, Asheron's Call 2: Fallen Kings , which came out in 2002 (just after the first Asheron's Call expansion). However, after only one expansion Asheron's Call 2: Fallen Kings shut down in 2005. The following year Turbine brought out Dungeons & Dragons Online: Stormreach. Early reception was positive but the game was criticised for poor solo play.
Asheron's Call 2: Fallen Kings was a fantasy MMORPG for Microsoft Windows-based PCs which was released on November 22, 2002 and shut down on December 30, 2005. In 2012, it was relaunched as a beta for active Asheron's Call subscribers. It is a sequel to 1999's Asheron's Call, although content, graphics and gameplay dynamics differed greatly from its predecessor.
One year after that, in 2007, Turbine released The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar , which got positive reviews and was seen as a needed boost for the company.
The Lord of the Rings Online is a massive multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) for Microsoft Windows and OS X set in a fantasy universe based upon J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth writings. It took place during the time period of The Lord of the Rings. It was developed and maintained by Turbine after Jeffrey Anderson secured the rights from Vivendi.
In 2009, Dungeons and Dragons Online was suffering a low playerbase; in an attempt to save the game, Turbine replaced the traditional monthly subscription model with a free one and changed the name from "Stormreach" to "Eberron Unlimited". Many other games in the MMORPG genre have since followed this shift to a Free to Play (F2P) model. The game was later renamed simply to Dungeons and Dragons Online.
In 2010, Turbine also moved The Lord of the Rings Online (which was then on its second expansion) to a Free to Play model. In the same year, Turbine was purchased by Warner Bros..
In 2012, Turbine announced that they would bring back Asheron's Call 2: Fallen Kings.
In 2015, it was announced that development of Infinite Crisis would end immediately and that the game will be closed on August 14. [6]
The company was hit with layoffs for three years consecutively starting from 2014. While Turbine's focus was shifted to develop free-to-play mobile games by Warner Bros. in 2016, the servers for both The Lord of the Rings Online and Dungeons & Dragons Online would be maintained and supported. Turbine's current projects include two mobile titles: Batman: Arkham Underworld and Game of Thrones: Conquest. [7]
On December 19, 2016, it was announced that Turbine would no longer be involved with the development of The Lord of the Rings Online or Dungeons & Dragons Online, instead a spin-off studio under the name of Standing Stone Games was formed to take over further development of the game, with game staff moving from Turbine to the new studio. As part of this transition, Daybreak Game Company would become the new publisher, taking over from Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. [8] It was announced not long after that, though the Asheron's Call IP would remain with Turbine, Asheron's Call and Asheron's Call 2: Fallen Kings would both close on January 31, 2017. [9]
