Turbine Will Self-Publish Middle-Earth Online in 2006

Turbine, Inc. announced today that it has finalized a deal with Tolkien Enterprises and Vivendi Universal Games (VU Games) that grants Turbine the exclusive right to develop and publish massively multiplayer online worlds based on The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit literary works. As part of the agreement, Turbine will own all of the game assets to the massively multiplayer online role playing game (MMORPG) The Lord of the Rings: Middle-Earth Online which is scheduled for 2006. All publishing responsibilities previously assumed by VU Games for the online license have been transitioned to Turbine effective immediately.