Death of Asherons Call 2

The MMORPG will cease on December 30th, according to the official web site for Asheron's Call 2. The title is no longer profitable for the company, so they will be terminating the servers for the games.

Asherons Call Left Unharmed

Despite this announcement, the original Asheron's Call game will continue to receive support for the near term. Turbine spokespeople have reassured players of their original hit that there are no plans to cease operations.

Farewell, Turbine West Coast

In related news, Turbine has announced that they are closing their West Coast offices and consolidating into their Westwood, Massachusetts headquarters. The Santa Monica office was launched in 2004, with hopes to take advantage of the close proximity to the Hollywood machine as well as the West Coast's Asia connections. There were 10 staffers in the Santa Monica, California office and they have all been offered opportunities in the home office once the operation closes in December.

The company has downplayed the connection between the two events, but clearly they are related as Turbine tries to cut costs. Both the game and the development studio that was supporting it will be terminated at the end of this year, obviously more than coincidence.

Hello, Dungeons and Dragons and Lord of the Rings

Turbine has said they are reassigning all of the employees who were working to support the AC2 game onto other projects. Turbine currently has additional MMORPGs in development: Dungeons & Dragons Online: Stormreach and Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar. Both titles are currently slated for release in the first part of 2006.

Dungeons & Dragons Online: Stormreach will be published by Atari games and is an online RPG set in the Dungeons and Dragons universe. The game is set in the town of Stormreach, within the world of Eberron. The seven districts of the town will include numerous quests and opportunities for adventure.

Turbine plans to self-publish Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar, which is currently in development at their East Coast studio. Originally called Middle Earth Online, the game includes many of the locales from the Fellowship of the Ring. Use skill-based combat to work your way through solo and multiplayer quests. The game promises worlds that can be altered markedly as you go through the environment. Destruction of entire towns is possible, making it important for players to guard their resources. Several release schedules show the launch for Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar in the first week of January 2006.