Asheras wrote on Dec 19
th, 2016 at 2:23pm:
If the games were losing money, they would have shut them down and laid off or transferred the staff to new projects. But the games were making money. So, to keep the focus tight, you sell the profitable game to an investor/company that is interested in the PC/MMO market. You make some cash and you can invest that in your focus area. Meanwhile, the operational burden of those games and any risks associated are now mitigated.
Spot on. Standard business practices here, folks. When a company needs to focus resources on their core business, they shutter the money sinks and sell the profitable non-core businesses. Turdbine/WB has made it abundantly clear that their new core is mobile gaming.
Flav wrote on Dec 19
th, 2016 at 2:38pm:
Honestly it would be extremely strange for WB to disvest the Lotro IP when it's the reason they bought Turbine.
I think it makes sense when you look at the timing of things. WB purchased Turbine in 2010 - seven years after the third movie was released, but
two years before the first Hobbit movie was released. There was significant potential for that property to take off again. It didn't. Now, all three Hobbit movies have been released and the property is dead for a decade or two at minimum. Sell, sell, sell!