Gamespy: Jason Wonacott on Turbine’s Tolkien Acquisition

Gamespy today, has an interview with Jason Wonacott of Turbine. They are talking about the recent announcement of Turbine self publishing LOTR’s MMO.

GameSpy: Is Turbine planning to self-publish the game, or will you be shopping the property around to another publisher?

Jason Wonacott: In our new relationship with Tolkien Enterprises, Turbine is the exclusive worldwide publisher of all MMOGs based on the fantastic literary works the Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. We are committed to making sure that Tolkien, RPG, and MMORPG fans around the world can get their hands on the game when it debuts in 2006. That being said, Turbine’s focus is really on the product development, online support, and operation and marketing side of the business; we do not handle the logistics of retail distribution. We will license a well-respected retail partner to handle inventory and sales for us. This partnership will be similar to the relationship with have with Station Publishing and Codemasters to bring the Asheron’s Call franchise expansion packs to retail in May.

Check out the full interview at Gamespy.