Turbine and Warner Brothers

I’m calling it right now — Turbine and Warner Brothers are going to make a Harry Potter MMO and it’s going to be designed in the same way that Dungeon and Dragons has been relaunched.  It seriously fits the Harry Potter game feel.  They’ll be able to design a Hogwarts Castle that all the players can hang out in like a city and do everything from socialize with their house mates to play quidditch out on the field.

They’ll use an extreme amount of instancing and a lobby system to make it work.  I bet players can get together and work through taking on various forms of evil and adventure with their friends.  It will more than likely be extremely accessible to younger crowds, but with more substance than Free Realms, while maintaining that fluffy worldly feeling.   Imagine the money they’ll make on a Harry Potter MMO like this, especially making it a F2P microtransaction game.  They can charge for everything from Gryffendor scarves to Nimbus 3000’s to the Dark Forest adventure pack.

It’s going to be interesting to see what comes out of this acquisition.  Owning all the Lord of the Rings games makes sense.  Obtaining a decent MMO developer makes sense.  Hopefully they do something with it beyond just consolidating the franchise or creating a F2P game out of one of the biggest IP’s out there.    Mark my words though, with the movie coming out and Lego Harry Potter, there will be a Harry Potter MMO coming out of all of this.

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  • You know, I was thinking the exact same thing this morning when I saw the news. Personally I think they would make millions by doing it.

  • Most people have been speculating that there was a HP MMO in the works at Turbine since Warner put some money into the company a few years ago now, and it only makes sense for Warner to buy the place out now if they’re reasonably confident in the product.

  • I agree with you if this happens it could be HUGE. They had better of already started it though, with the last of the movies coming out in the next year or two it would be a shame to miss out on the buzz those would provide the game.

    I loved the books, and would definitely create my own little wizard to explore Hogwarts. I think making HW’s castle the main “lobby” and having different instanced areas to adventure in sounds like a great idea, and really the best way to make it work. The universe is chock full of great mmo fodder, as well as tons of little micro trans goodies. I’d almost like to see it shadow LoTRO and follow Harry along as he progresses through his schooling.

  • And to add to my previous post, even though MGM is doing The Hobbit movies (and owning the franchise) if you do some googling:

    ” 03/23/10 Time Warner Eyes MGM for $1.5 Billion”

  • In my opinion they will capitalize on the Hobbit movie coming out, but they won’t make a whole new game for it.

    I’d expect a Hobbit flavored expansion for LoTRO though. The players could detour over to the Misty Mountains for adventurers, getting to see lake town, see the tomb of the king under the mountain etc.
    They could even set up some kind of special instanced character play where the adventurer goes back in time and plays as Bilbo sneaking into Smaug’s bedroom, or through the halls of the wood elves. Tons of potential, but not enough “meat” to warrant a whole new mmo in my opinion.

  • I think the DDO model would be perfect for a HP MMO. Turbine knows how to put out quality product. The only question will they have enough content at launch to keep people interested till the game settles in.

  • This can work awesomely well and i hope that they make a fun and compelling way of playing Quidditch and creating Quidditch teams!

    But if they do release this MMO i hope that, as DDO they create a ssubscriber option that offers a decent amount of Turbine Points

  • I know WB did this for the Harry Potter MMO, but I so wish they would do AC2 the way we all wanted it now that they have a decent cash influx.

  • Depends what rights they have. J.K Rowling is fairly protective of her property where it comes to content. An MMO would probably have to have some new storyline elements and I would be surprised to see her allow that. It’s not like she needs the money, after all…

    If the rights they already hold cover an MMO then yes, it’s a no-brainer.

  • Also re Silvertemplar’s comments above, MGM’s financial troubles have been all over the UK news today because of the James Bond thing. They are certainy vulnerable.

  • JK Rowling lost a ton of control over Harry Potter to Warner Brothers. I can’t find the article that I read about a year ago, but I think Warner Brothers has almost complete control over any game as well as merchandising of Harry Potter. Warner Brothers owns the license now.

    If Rowling really did have control, she sure didn’t exercise the quality control over the current Harry Potter games.

  • LOTRO is pretty good, so lets hope Turbine don’t waste their talents catering to the kiddy market. Unfortunately Harry Potter isn’t the only gruesome property that Warner Bros have.

    Roqsan

  • I am going to wait for the Jamaican knock off “Hairy Pothead and the Half-Baked Sinse”