Lord of the Rings Online studio Turbine hit by ‘significant’ layoffs

Turbine Studios, the creator of MMOs based on Lord of the Rings and Dungeon & Dragons, has suffered a ‘significant’ number of layoffs.

Warner Bros acquired the developer in 2010. It released DC Comics spin-off MOBA Infinite Crisis in March of last year, with the servers and game shut down mere months later in August.

Turbine was struck by layoffs in both 2014 and 2015, with this year’s losses marking a major transformation for the Boston outlet, according to Warner Bros.

“Turbine is transitioning into a free-to-play, mobile development studio, and as a result we are eliminating some positions,” the publisher told Kotaku.

“The Lord of the Rings Online and Dungeons & Dragons Online games will continue to operate as they do now.

“Re-focusing and reducing the studio size was a difficult decision for the company, and we are grateful to all of the Turbine staff for their considerable contributions.”

No details regarding how many staff would be affected were provided.