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PC Games (Games) Role Playing (Games) Entertainment Games

Turbine Buys Asheron's Call From Microsoft 33

Posted by simoniker from the come-to-daddy dept.
Thanks to an anonymous reader for pointing to Turbine's announcement that they've purchased back the entire Asheron's Call MMO franchise from Microsoft. Turbine, the original developers of the titles, has just announced a large venture capital-sourced funding increase, and will now "assume all responsibility for Asheron's Call and Asheron's Call 2 game and player support, including customer service, tech support, quality assurance and a new billing system." Additionally, a letter from the content developers reveals that "we are going to be making an expansion pack for Asheron's Call 1", the still-popular franchise originator.
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Turbine Buys Asheron's Call From Microsoft More

Turbine Buys Asheron's Call From Microsoft

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  • Let me be the first... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by krisbrowne42 ( 549049 ) on Wednesday December 17, 2003 @11:11AM (#7745541)
    ..to welcome this change, dragging what seemed to be an otherwise good game from the jaws of evil.. Now just port it to some other platforms so those of us who won't use a Wintendo can play it.
    • your only hope for that is if it's playable in wine, the AC games are both directx based

      and i'd be betting that their other games coming up are also directx based since they're built on the Turbine Engine
      • Porting from DirectX to OS X seems to be on the rise (notice the increased speed that Aspyr has displayed in their porting).

        Granted, I'm not a MMRPG fan by any means, but I've heard good things about Asheron's Call.

  • Interesting (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Mantrid ( 250133 ) on Wednesday December 17, 2003 @11:13AM (#7745560) Journal
    This is a very aggresive move on their parts, I really hope it pays off for them! AC1 was actually a fun little game - hmmm it's almost half tempting to try it again.

    I wonder though, what they're plans are for AC2 - seems like a bit of a dead end - I wonder if they could get AC1 up to AC2's standards graphically and then work on things from there? They could can AC2 and compensate those people some how, and then move ahead with one unified game.
    • One of the letters mentioned that AC2 would also get an expansion.

    • Re:Interesting (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Teh Suq ( 655848 )
      AC2 was a classic case of how not to launch an MMORPG. They launched an un-balanced, low content game with non-functional chat. Exit the design team.

      Enter the live team. Spent a year redesigning each and every class from the top down. Allowing every player to reset their character's class every month at no cost or effort (due to the redesigning going on). Wrestle control of the chat servers away from Microsoft thus getting chat working almost a year after launch. People quit in droves, who wants to pay fo

  • Sweet Jesus! (Score:3, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 17, 2003 @11:15AM (#7745593)
    Someone Buying Something From Microsoft!

    No really though, I'm sure Turbine can turn it into less of a steaming pile of (AC2, Im looking at you).

    But as far as profitability, its gonna take a while to get the public interested in a game they've already given up on.

  • Good move (Score:4, Insightful)

    by xalres ( 668363 ) on Wednesday December 17, 2003 @11:31AM (#7745755)
    Quite a ballsy move on Turbine's part. There was speculation in the AC community as to whether or not the games (specifically AC2) were going to be shut down. By doing this, Turbine is not only showing their commitment to the franchise but they are also dumping the company that:

    - was responsible for four months of borked chat because they wanted to showcase their new .NET platform.

    - was responsible for the server disaster in Jan/Feb.

    - would not market the game!! Thus keeping the server populations dropping because of the first two problems.
    • I agree that it is a good move to separate the game from MS. There is some talk now that the reason they haven't marketed the game is because MS is now producing an inhouse MMORPH called Mythica that they didn't want to have to compete against Asheron's Call.

  • The Zone? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by _iris ( 92554 ) on Wednesday December 17, 2003 @11:41AM (#7745847) Homepage
    Does this mean they won't be using The Zone? If they do drop The Zone, perhaps they will port it to Linux. I would probably start playing again if they did.

  • Good (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Predathar ( 658076 )
    MS really screwed the pooch with AC2. Sure AC2 was nicer, but it was DULL. Also I dont really see the need to make a sequel to a MMORPG, I mean DaoC has the right idea, update the graphics with expansion packs.

    Why make a sequeal that will possibly split the popuataion across 2 games? Expansions hurt the old areas by making people that have the expansion go there less often, but it's still not as bad as 2 seperate game worlds.

    • massmogs and sequels (Score:3, Interesting)

      by *weasel ( 174362 )

      the developers just want to do new things that they feel they can't do in the current game. or they can't justify updating the old client to support the new changes but not increase the system requirements alongside creating the whole new engine.

      and naturally they feel attached to their old world, so they don't want to leave it.

      so the 'sequel' approach appears.

      but they need to realize that the best thing you can do is to isolate one project from the last. by name at least.

      as UO has shown, people will pl
    • From the Turbine Website [turbinegames.com]

      'm sure that as soon as you read this announcement, your first question was, "Will Turbine develop an expansion pack for AC1?"

      Does Bobo like nanners?

      Yes, we are going to be making an expansion pack for AC1. But I have to warn you, don't expect it soon; it is a good ways off. Actual dates will be released later as we discuss with you what you want to see in it and firm up the design details. I can tell you this, though: Graphics update? You bet!
  • I find this interesting because I thought Turbine was devoting their resources to developing D&D online [turbinegames.com] What a stark contrast that will be to the asstastic failure that AC2 was.

    • Re:Wierd (Score:3, Interesting)

      by durenthal ( 733611 )
      Turbine has its fingers in a lot of pies right now.

      They're doing the Middle Earth MMORPG for Vivendi. They're doing the Dungeons and Dragons MMORPG (formerly for Atari - now they're self publishing, and using Atari as a distribution partner only), and of course, the AC series.

      They're able to do this because they're using the same engine for all their games (AC1 being the exception, and we can hope they'll migrate it to their new engine too). Once you've got the engine done, assuming it's robust enough

  • Macroers and exploiters will begone once Turbine gets full control. They never wanted them in the game and MS refused to do anything real about it. Also I have heard numerous rumblings that there will be a much needed graphical update for the aging client.
    • not true. the original developers never had a problem with macro's. the first combat macro was actually written by a dev, i believe it was Jesse. anyone who thinks it was the devs who wanted to ban macros, either hasnt been around long, or hasn't been paying attention.
      • I've been around since beta. Jesse is no longer on the team and the current devs such as Todd (just look up his posts on acvault.com) have repeatedly stated they want to get rid of combat macroing period. Todd was one of the original developers of the mapping and the portal.dat stuff before he got hired on at Turbine. Most if not all of the original devs are gone and anyone who has kept up with the current ones on the live team knows they want to get rid of a lot of the stuff Microsoft allows. For one t

  • hmmm (Score:1)

    by rwven ( 663186 )
    now there's something new...not every day someone pulls something away from MS....
    • I think this, taken from an AC2 board, was more likely the case.

      "[Bill Gates] : Damit, Turbine is loosing me so much money, get rid of them...


      [JessicaM] : That retard at MicroShaft is loosing us money, cant wait to get rid of them"

    • Re:hmmm (Score:3, Funny)

      by ronfar ( 52216 )
      Well, you'll have to expect this sort of thing now that the One Ring has been destroyed.

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