VU Sells Rings MMORPG License to Turbine News

The US based developer/publisher Turbine has announced that it has purchased the licence from Vivendi-Universal to produce Massively Multiplayer Online titles including the highly anticipated MMORPG based on J.R.R. Tolkienâ??s literary masterpieces, The Lord of the Rings and its â??prequelâ?? The Hobbit.

VU previously held the licence to produce titles based on the literary works and has gone on to publish adventure titles based on The Hobbit and the first part of the Rings story, Fellowship of the Ring; it had also up until this announcement been the publisher of the MMORPG too.

Announcing the deal, Jeffrey Anderson, president and CEO, Turbine, Inc commented that, "As the exclusive publisher, Turbine looks forward to bringing J.R.R. Tolkien's vibrant worlds to online gamers around the globeâ?¦Turbine has been instrumental in the direction and production of Middle-Earth Online, its service and the community since day one. Together with Tolkien Enterprises, we intend to produce the best possible representation of these outstanding literary works and ensure a long and exciting future for Middle-Earth Online."

"We are pleased to be working with Turbine," said Albert M. Bendich, Executive Vice President of The Saul Zaentz Company, which does business as Tolkien Enterprises. "We are confident that, under Turbine's development, Middle-Earth Online will faithfully bring-to-life the realms of Middle-earth for Tolkien fans everywhere to explore and enjoy."

This is the latest deal for online titles completed by Turbine following the 2004 deal that saw the company acquire the Asheronâ??s Call from Microsoft, and the MMORPG version of the daddy of fantasy games, Dungeons & Dragonâ??s, which Turbine is self-funding.

Weâ??ll have more news about all of Turbineâ??s online titles shortly...