[Middle-Earth Online] Turbine has announced that it
…has finalized a deal with Tolkien Enterprises and Vivendi Universal Games (VU Games) that grants Turbine the exclusive right to develop and publish massively multiplayer online worlds based on The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit literary works.
It is interesting to me that they have the rights to The Hobbit as well. While they claim to not have any plans to incorporate it into the current MMO under development, they did mention that they had a reason for buying the rights.
I also see they have pushed back the release of MEO to 2006. I think that is a wise move. Hopefully they can take their time to get this one right. I could very easily see it being a big failure.
In a recent Computer Games interview, a bold prediction was made by Turbine’s Vijay Lakshman; “I will go on the record as saying that Middle Earth Online will be one of the best MMOs ever made.”
Consider it noted.
