Turbine Looking to Produce LotRO Console Version

Turbine is looking to produce a console version of the Lord of the Rings Online. The developer is searching for console developers and already has rights to produce a Lord of the Rings MMO on consoles.

Even though MMO’s have always been one of the games that didn’t really go cross-platform, Turbine is keen to go where no-one has gone before. “We have the Lord of the Rings license for use on all platforms, and we’re determined to use it.” Turbine’s Jeffrey Steefel told Tweakers.net, a Dutch hardware site.

Although Steefel is positive about the challenges that a console version would bring, he is also aware of the lingering control issues; “Other developers have developed MMO’s for consoles before us, and not one of those games have been succesful. There’s a definite challenge there. We will also need to design a completely new interface. As opposed to a fully equiped keyboard and mouse on the PC, consoles only have controllers with a few buttons.”

Steefel didn’t answer the question if, or when a console version of LotRO would be announced or go into developement.

The Lord of the Rings Online on the PC is currently gearing towards the launch of the next free content update ‘The Ring-forge of the Elven rings” as well as its first full retail expansion pack “Mines of Moria”. Both are expected later this year.