Turbine whipping up 360, PS3 MMOGs?

Massively multiplayer online role-playing games are Turbine Inc.'s business, and the developer announced earlier this month that it had landed a massive infusion of cash to fund future projects. The funding, led by Time Warner and GGV Capital, would line Turbine's coffers with an extra $40 million, with which CEO Jim Crowley said would allow the company to "bring new titles to market, expand the platforms we support, and introduce new technologies to sustain self-evolving game worlds."

While Turbine didn't expressly say so, it was assumed that Crowley's comments indicated the gamemaker would be expanding its efforts into console development. As part of a recent interview with fan site MMORPG.com, Crowley further indicated that cross-platform console development is on Turbine's mind. "These worlds are so rich and robust, we do want them to be shared across platforms, both for existing and future worlds," said Crowley.

While the exec named no specific titles, he did say both current and future games developed by Turbine are being considered for console migration. Turbine's two most recent MMOGs are Lord of the Rings Online, launched in collaboration with Midway in 2007, and Dungeons & Dragons Online, published by D&D rights holder Atari in 2006.

Crowley also made no mention of which consoles, exactly, were being targeted. However, as revealed through a job request on the developer's Web site, Turbine is currently looking for a senior console engineer with experience developing on the Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3.