Tolkien's Virtual World Takes Off
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With the Rings game, Anderson is attempting to transform Turbine from an obscure game developer working on contract for big publishers such as Microsoft (MSFT) into a well-regarded gaming brand of its own, capable of competing with offerings from much larger companies such as Vivendi's (VIVEF) Blizzard Entertainment, maker of the current top MMORPG title, World of Warcraft, which has 9 million subscribers worldwide.
"We're more nimble than a larger company," Anderson insists of his team, which consists of about 200 employees including developers, designers, support, sales, and administrative staff. Inking agreements with European developer Codemasters and CDC Games for an upcoming Chinese edition of the Lord of the Rings Online, Anderson's team has proven adept at the dealmaking crucial to extending multiplayer games around the globe. Such deals allow the game to be operated according to national regulations and to be translated into the appropriate language.
Too bad Dungeons & Dragons Online never shared the same success.
