WB Games Boston is an American video game developer. Turbine was founded as CyberSpace, Inc. in 1994, changing their company name in 1995 to Turbine Entertainment Software Corp. and in 2005 to Turbine, Inc. On April 20, 2010, the company was acquired by Warner Bros. Home Entertainment for $160 million.
History
Turbine was founded in April 1994 by students from the Artificial Intelligence Lab at Brown University as CyberSpace, Inc. Jonathan Monsarrat, who had the idea to form the company, became its CEO. In September 1994, Monsarrat was hit by a car, and used the insurance money to fund CyberSpace. In 1995, the company was based in his mother's house with 12 staff members. They found an office in Providence, Rhode Island but later moved to Westwood, Massachusetts to better take advantage of the software engineerscoming out of Boston's colleges. As CEO, Monsarrat used free food and office pranks to keep staff motivated. In 1995, the company changed its name to Turbine Entertainment Software Corp. In 1999, the company's first game, Asheron's Call, was released. It was notable for being the third 3D MMORPG, following the launch of Meridian 59 and then EverQuest. Its most notable feature, designed by Monsarrat, was a "loyalty" system giving new and experienced players incentives to work together. The Olthoi was the first monster developed for Asheron's Call, designed by Joe Angell. After Asheron's Call, the company went on to make a sequel, ', which came out in 2002. However, after only one expansion, Asheron's Call 2: Fallen Kings shut down in 2005. In the same year, Turbine Entertainment Software Corp. changed its name to Turbine, Inc. In 2006, Turbine released '. Early reception was positive, but the game was criticised for poor solo play. In 2007, Turbine released , which got positive reviews and was seen as a needed boost for the company. In 2009, Dungeons and Dragons Online was suffering a low playerbase; in an attempt to save the game, Turbine replaced the traditional monthly subscription model with a free to play one. In 2010, Turbine also moved The Lord of the Rings Online to a free-to-play model. In the same year, Turbine was purchased by Warner Bros. Home Entertainment for $160 million. In 2012, Turbine announced that they would bring back Asheron's Call 2: Fallen Kings. In 2015, it was announced that development of Infinite Crisis would end immediately and that the game will be closed on August 14. The company was hit with layoffs for three years consecutively starting from 2014. While Turbine's focus was shifted to develop free-to-play mobile games by Warner Bros. in 2016, the servers for both The Lord of the Rings Online and Dungeons & Dragons Online would be maintained and supported. The company's current project is the mobile title: Game of Thrones: Conquest. On December 19, 2016, it was announced that Turbine would no longer be involved with the development of The Lord of the Rings Online or Dungeons & Dragons Online, instead a spin-off studio under the name of Standing Stone Games was formed to take over further development of the game, with game staff moving from Turbine to the new studio. As part of this transition, Daybreak Game Company would become the new publisher, taking over from Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. It was announced not long after that, though the Asheron's Call IP would remain with Turbine, Asheron's Call and Asheron's Call 2: Fallen Kings would both close on January 31, 2017. In November 2018, its parent company changed the name of the studio to WB Games Boston.
