Turbine, NHN Team For Korean Lord of the Rings Online Release

Turbine (Asheron's Call, Stormreach) and Korean internet company NHN Corporation have announced an agreement to distribute and localize Turbine's MMO The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar for the Korean market. The game is currently operating in North America, Europe, Australia, New Zealand and Japan. NHN operates the search portal Naver in Korea, which the company has previously claimed commands a nearly 70 percent market share in Korea - surpassing both Yahoo! and Google in that market. NHN also operates Korea's Hangame online game portal, claiming 1 million concurrent users worldwide. The company is headquartered in Seongnam, South Korea, and has offices in Japan, China and the U.S. Turbine President and CEO Jim Crowley said, "The Lord of the Rings is a powerful franchise with global appeal, and we are committed to bringing the game to fans around the world. NHN is a powerful force in the Korean gaming market and we are very excited to work with them to bring The Lord of the Rings Online to Korea next year."