Loading... $40M ACME Anvil?

Welcome to the 843rd Edition of Loading...

If you aren't reading this in your e-mail, you could be. Sign up. Are you looking for gaming news? Look no further for all of the headlines. General industry news, right down to game specific and forum thread feeds are all yours as part of Ten Ton Hammer's news syndication program. Enjoy!

Daily Column

Loading... Your news. Your way.

First, the Ten Ton Pulse, your finger on the beating heart of the MMOG industry.

If the Top 10 isn't enough, we now show the Top 20 and Top 50 lists as well, available to everyone on our homepage. (What is Pulse?)

Age of Conan - 200 BPM
World of Warcraft - 81 BPM
Lord of the Rings Online - 34 BPM
EVE Online - 32 BPM
EverQuest 2 - 29 BPM
Warhammer Online - 20 BPM
Guild Wars - 20 BPM
Vanguard - 19 BPM
Lineage 2 - 16 BPM
Dungeons and Dragons Online - 12 BPM

Turbine, the development team behind Lord of the Rings Online and Dungeons and Dragons Online, have announced that they have raised $40 million in capital from investors Time Warner, GGV Capital, Highland Capital Partners, Polaris Venture Partners, Tudor Ventures and Columbia Capital.

"WESTWOOD, MA -- June 4, 2008 -- Turbine, Inc. today announced that it has raised $40 million in equity financing. Time Warner Inc. (NYSE: TWX) and GGV Capital, a leader in expansion-stage venture capital investments in the U.S. and China, led the investment along with existing investors, Highland Capital Partners, Polaris Venture Partners, Tudor Ventures and Columbia Capital. The investment will be used to further accelerate Turbine's growth as a global leader in online entertainment.

"This is truly an exciting time for Turbine. The addition of Time Warner, one of the world's largest media companies, and GGV Capital, one of the financial community's most sophisticated investors, adds a level of access, perspective and experience to Turbine that is singularly unique in the global online entertainment space," said Jim Crowley, president and CEO of Turbine, Inc. "Turbine has an extraordinary team, incredible technology and a growing portfolio of games based on some of the most popular brands ever created. With this funding we are uniquely positioned to change the future of online entertainment as we bring new titles to market, expand the platforms we support and introduce new technologies to sustain self-evolving game worlds."

An online entertainment veteran, Turbine is recognized globally for its industry-leading technology platform, groundbreaking game graphics and its exceptional ability to create and operate multiple massive, persistent online worlds that power hundreds of thousands of interactive social gaming experiences. The company currently operates three award-winning franchises around the globe and is one of the largest privately-held online gaming studios in North America.

"Our investment in Turbine is an important addition to Time Warner's entertainment initiatives," said Rachel Lam, Senior Vice President and Group Managing Director of Time Warner Investments. "Online interactive entertainment is a huge growth market and we are very excited about Turbine, its unique capabilities and the obvious opportunities that exist with our own broad portfolio of IP."

"The demand for massively multiplayer online worlds is exploding both geographically and in terms of platforms served," said Hany Nada, managing partner, GGV Capital. "Turbine is a proven leader in massively interactive online entertainment and the incredible technology that supports it. We look forward to marrying our strengths both here and in Asia with Turbine's unique capabilities.""

Blizzard once commented that they could produce an MMOG in three years for $50 million. I'm not sure that they could, but $40 million is certainly enough for Turbine to develop one in their normal timeframe of four years. Speculating about funding I have to wonder if the money isn't going to be used on at least two fronts.

"Online interactive entertainment is a huge growth market and we are very excited about Turbine, its unique capabilities and the obvious opportunities that exist with our own broad portfolio of IP." - Rachel Lam, Senior Vice President and Group Managing Director of Time Warner Investments.

Time Warner subsidiaries include AOL, New Line Cinema, HBO, Turner Broadcasting, Warner Brothers Entertainment, Cartoon Network, CNN and DC Comics.

The wellspring of intellectual properties that could be turned into MMOGs are nearly limitless. Fusion Fall, a Cartoon Network product is already in development, as is a DC Comics product. Is Turbine coming in to rescue one or both? I doubt it, but Turbine's expertise and technology would certainly benefit either game. Who wouldn't want to be part of a Looney Tunes MMOG? I've waited a long time to buy an ACME anvil and drop it on a boss mob's head.

Then we have GGV Capital,

"Turbine is a proven leader in massively interactive online entertainment and the incredible technology that supports it. We look forward to marrying our strengths both here and in Asia with Turbine's unique capabilities." -Hany Nada, managing partner, GGV Capital.

Will we see Turbine games localized for Asia or will we see Turbine create something new with the Asian market in mind? Jeffrey Steefel is an innovative developer. If he is involved then I'm especially excited to see what comes of this influx of cash to the Turbine vaults.

Our vaults also filled today, with new content. We talked to Matt Saia of Freaky Creatures, Matt Woodward of EVE Online (about the Empyrean Age) and Mark Jacobs regarding crafting in Warhammer Online.

"Basically, we've got the empire stuff - you're safe in high sec, you're mining, you're running missions. Everything's fine and dandy and no one's shooting at you. Then you've got null sec combat where it's just like - bam! bam! bam! politics, explosions, crazy stuff. And a lot of players say, "I'd like to try PvP, but I'm really intimidated, basically. Everyone's really good, and I'm going to get ganked by a bigger ship, and I don't know anybody," and so on. There's a big barrier to entry between the two areas of the game. We're trying to bridge that gap.

The concept is that you'll sign up - you can sign up as a new player or veteran player - you can take missions and missions will send you into enemy space. The enemy will shoot at you, and you can shoot back or run away. You get in and you do your thing, you maybe snipe a bit, and you get out again. It's mostly directed, the mission tells you where to go. Maybe you don't like PvP - that's ok, there's a place for you. Or maybe you're like, "Oh man, that was the greatest experience of my life, I just got killed!" I know a lot of people in game that have been like that; they were care bears, then they get shot at and die and they're like, "That was awesome!" That's what we want people to do - try it. If they try it and like it, they can keep doing it, and there's more features that they can get involved in. They can be fighting over territory for their empires and deciding who controls this system or that system." - Matt Woodward, EVE Online

Those two paragraphs alone are enough to get me to try the game again. Add that to the fact that you can play for free to try the game without requiring a credit card and it seems like a no-brainer. Empyrean Age launches on June 10th.

What is your take on the Turbine situation? Will you be reintroducing yourself to EVE Online?

That's it for today! The Loading Forums await you. Do you feel the need to contact me personally with naughty pictures or derogatory comments? Here's my E-mail.

--
[A big thanks to Phil Comeau for putting together the links, headlines and taglines today. ]

16 new MMOG hand-crafted articles today! 54 in June! 1350 in 2008!

New MMOG Articles At Ten Ton Hammer Today

Interviews

Free-to-Play

Top 10 Free-to-Play Games, Week 7

Community

Guides

Hot Content - Or, what I took a fancy to

Real World News

Dead voters abound in Conn.

Hillary still falls short
Threatening underwear thief jailed

Briefs said somethong was wrong with him
One 'Thong Bandit' in custody

And it's not even the guy in the story above this

Thanks as always for visiting TenTonHammer.com. Thanks to Phil Comeau for doing the heavy lifting with the links.

- John "Boomjack" Hoskin and the Ten Ton Hammer Team

Last Updated: Mar 13, 2016

Featured

About The Author

Comments

Related Content