Dungeons and Dragons Online!

I don’t talk about Dungeons and Dragons nearly enough, but the game is the poster child for the typical crazy success story. Game launches, game goes partially free to play with a subscription and cash shop, game explodes in popularity. Not to say Dungeons and Dragons was hurting, just that not nearly enough people were giving the game the attention it warranted.

Needless to say, the move was a huge success. Turbine announced earlier this year that the initiative had brought in over one million new players, and more than doubled the number of subscribers, while the cash shop saw a huge boost in purchases. Since then, Turbine has done everything they can to accommodate free players, including the removal of leveling sigils, allowing anyone to make it to level 20, and introduced “casual” difficulty, for solo players. Two enormous updates (Update 3 and 4) have launched, with more updates along the way.

So what’s coming in DDO’s future? Guild airships! Players will be able to build bankers, auctioneers, vendors, and other bits in their guild housing, which will serve as transportation and quick teleportation to many dungeons and raids. The guild itself will have a leveling system by which players can access better airships. Even more stunning, the airships will be viewable in in-game airspace! Half-Orcs will become a playable race at some point this year as well, alongside a bevy of new adventure packs and other items hitting the Turbine store.

More on Turbine and Dungeons and Dragons Online as it appears. To those who have asked, no I do not have any new information on the lawsuit between Turbine and Atari.