Turbine Restructuring Leads to Layoffs

The Boston Globe brings word that Turbine has laid off an undisclosed number of workers, though considering that their The Lord of the Rings Online: Riders of Rohan expansion pack was just released, this could just be a winding-down period at the free-to-play MMO developer. A snip:

Needham’s Turbine Inc., makers of the online video games Dungeons and Dragons and The Lord of the Rings, cut its workforce as part of a restructuring at its parent company, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment.

(As part of the continual review of our business operations and fluctuating market conditions, we have had to make reductions in our Turbine workforce,) said Remi Sklar, spokeswoman for Warner Bros. Entertainment Group, in an e-mail. (The group continues to remain an integral part of Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment.)

She did not provide additional specifics regarding the layoffs.

Turbine, which has more than 400 employees, is the Boston area’s biggest game company. The cuts come two days after the San Francisco game-maker Zynga Inc. closed its Cambridge office, which had about 50 employees, and reduced its workforce elsewhere. Zynga, the maker of Facebook game Farmville, has struggled as fewer people play games on social media and the web, and shifting their game habits to mobile devices such as tablets and smartphones.