Turbine will announce console MMO projects "early next year"

Turbine will announce console MMO "products" early next year, Lord of the Rings Online dev boss Jeff Steefel told VG247 today. Note the plural.

"We're really not talking about what our console product plans are, but we will be soon," he said when asked specifically if we're going to see a console version of LotRO.

"I would guess by early next year's we'll be able to be much more specific about what we're doing with console, what kind of products we're putting on console."

Steefel said that the developer's work on console games is currently focused on working with platform holders to pave the way for the first wave of console MMOs, and that Turbine's console plans are still early.

"What we're doing now is the early development work and the work with the hardware manufacturers to understand where they're heading in the online space, where the connectivity between the console and internet is really headed.

"That's everything from how the games really need to behave to the relationship between the hardware manufacturers and the developers to the publishing model, to the consumer business model," he said.

"It's never been done before."

Turbine's console plans are still a mystery, but rumour of a LotRO port has been heavy. But then, so has a Harry Potter game, so you never know.

Steefel was talking ahead of the launch of Lord of the Rings Online's Mines of Moria expansion, which ships on November 18.