LOTRO developer cuts staff post-Moria

Lord of the Rings Online developer Turbine has made a number of staff redundant at both its Massachusetts and California studios.

GamesIndustry.biz understands that the positions were in QA and Account Management. Turbine has said that it has no plans to outsource QA or tech support duties going forward.

"Yesterday, Turbine took steps to align our business to successfully achieve our strategic goals in the years ahead," said a spokesperson for the company.

"As part of this transition some of our talented colleagues will not be with us going forward."

When asked about specifics of the redundancies, Turbine declined to discuss the number of staff let go.

"We are a privately-held company and will not discuss the details regarding the number of our team that were affected. These changes were made across the entire organisation in both our Massachusetts and California offices," said the sposkesperson.

The company's California outfit was only established in October, and is headed up by former execs from the now defunct Flagship Studios.

Turbine has just released the first Lord of the Rings Online expansion, Mines of Moria, and said that the Tolkien MMO and its other online games, Asheron's Call and Dungeons & Dragons Online, would not be affected by the redundancies.

"We remain committed to delivering on the high level of quality entertainment services that our growing community of customers have come to trust from Turbine.

"The changes will not affect the operation of our three games, the development of future products and services or the customer experience that we are committed to delivering."

Turbine said that it has "no plans" to lay off any more staff in the immediate future.

"We just finished a major project with the launch of Mines of Moria and are now adjusting our resources to focus on several other projects that are in development. 

"In fact, Turbine is still hiring and we will continue to grow in 2009," said the company rep.