The good folks over at GameDaily recently came across an online gaming survey that’s certainly got a lot of us wondering just what the heck Turbine (developers) and Warner Bros. Interactive (the license holders) are up to.  The survey, which points a strong finger in the direction of ‘yes, we’re working on it, are you ready?’ also reveals some juicy details about the pricing structure, including microtransactions which could range from in-game currency, and additional classes/races, to character customizations including clothing, weapons and armor, animals and mounts.  Filed under downloadable content, we could see microtransactions facilitating expansion packs featuring additional quests and maps.

When questioned about the survey, neither Turbine nor Warner Bros. commented on any specific developments, but a Turbine representative did offer up, “Turbine has always been focused on the customer and one of the ways we do that is through extensive consumer research.” That’s about as vanilla as a statement can get, but remember, it’s not such a secret that Turbine has been working on a console project for quite some time now.

And now, let’s really throw some gasoline on the fire, and remind you that back in January of this year, Turbine put the feelers, and associated job ad, out for a microtransactions manager to be based out of their Westwood, MA offices.  Receiving quite a backlash from the PC LotRo playing community, Turbine put a statement out, “We know the recent job listing has caused a bit of a stir, but please be aware that this posting is for an unannounced future project.”  Could this ‘unannounced’ future project in fact be LotR for the Xbox 360?  And just one more piece of the puzzle might lie in the addition of Jan Robert Horsfall, the company’s newly appointed (and position specifically create for the LotR Xbox project?) Chief Marketing Officer.  If Turbine is going to make a concentrated push with this new project, and others of course, putting Horsfall’s skills to the test with a massive LotR/Xbox campaign might be a wise idea.  If all of these factors didn’t grab you, GameDaily also managed to grab a, ‘not 100% confirmation, but how can you look at this and think otherwise’ screenshot from the survey:

Other (possible) information about the (potential) upcoming Lord of the Rings MMO title for Xbox 360 (may) include:

• Make the move to Middle-earth as you adventure from the Shire to the shadowed walls of Mordor! Fight for the Free People of Middle-earth as you battle against the forces of the Dark Lord, or serve Sauron as you seek to obtain the One Ring! Play as any of 8 races and set out on your own epic adventure within the world created by J.R.R. Tolkien.
• Wage war against other players within Middle-earth in epic player vs. player battlegrounds! Earn Destiny Points that can be used to unlock powerful rewards.
• Two Epic Stories allow you to serve the Fellowship of the Ring or the Dark Lord Sauron! More than 600 quests will mold you into an unstoppable force for good…or evil. The choice is yours.
• Explore hundreds of hours of game play in the largest virtual world ever built on console.

Again, if the parenthesis weren’t enough of an indication, this survey does NOT confirm the release or even existence of said title, however….with E3 bearing down on us in less than a month…the timing does seem highly coincidental.  Stay tuned for updates.

Tags: dlc, LotR, microtransactions, Turbine

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 14th, 2009 at 2:57 pm and is filed under industry news. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.