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Neverwinter Nights MMOG descending in 2011?

By TomM_GScom, GameSpotPosted Jun 9, 2009 2:19 pm PT

Source: Hollywood trade magazine Variety.What we heard: Two weeks ago, Atari's turnaround experienced a sizable hiccup when the publisher announced an annual loss of $319 million and the departure of high-profile executive Phil Harrison. Following the earnings announcement, Atari CEO David Gardner...

Source: Hollywood trade magazine Variety.

What we heard: Two weeks ago, Atari's turnaround experienced a sizable hiccup when the publisher announced an annual loss of $319 million and the departure of high-profile executive Phil Harrison. Following the earnings announcement, Atari CEO David Gardner told GameSpot that the publisher had significantly cleaned house, canceling a number of projects and shifting the publisher's focus to taking its franchises online.

One leader in the online department is Cryptic Studios, which Atari acquired in December. With Champions Online for the PC slated for September, an Xbox 360 edition to follow later this year, and Star Trek Online due by April 2010, the City of Heroes creator may now be prepping yet one more massively multiplayer online venture.

Variety is reporting today that Atari plans to leverage its Dungeons & Dragons license with a new MMOG based on the Neverwinter Nights fantasy role-playing universe. Citing unspecified sources, the Hollywood trade reports that Atari hopes to release the online title in 2011, though no other details on the project were revealed. However, Variety did say that a Neverwinter Nights MMOG was a primary reason for Atari's acquisition of Cryptic last year.

BioWare, better known as the studio behind Mass Effect and the upcoming MMOG Star Wars: The Old Republic, crafted the well-regarded original Neverwinter Nights for PCs in 2002. Alpha Protocol studio Obsidian Entertainment developed Neverwinter Nights 2 for Atari, a game that received high marks in 2006.

If reports of a Neverwinter Nights MMOG prove accurate, it would be Atari's second attempt at bringing the Dungeons & Dragons franchise to the online gaming hemisphere. In 2006, the publisher teamed with Turbine Inc. on Dungeons & Dragons Online, a game that received decent reviews but lackluster commercial success. Just today, Turbine said it would begin offering a free-to-play, microtransaction-supported option this summer.

The official story: Atari had not responded to requests for comment as of press time.

Bogus or not bogus?: Looking dubious that if such a game exists it would be ready by 2011. Atari already has a Dungeons & Dragons-themed MMOG that didn't exactly gain a massive following. Plus, Cryptic has not one, but two MMOGs that it expects to release within the next 12 months, both of which will undoubtedly receive expansion packs, updates, and other postlaunch support. Adding a third MMOG on a tight turnaround time (for MMOG standards, anyway) to this equation seems like a recipe for disaster, and a disaster is the last thing that Atari can afford...literally.

121 Comments

  • StarvingPoet

    Posted Dec 14, 2009 8:10 am PT

    Yes, it's old news, but spend the time making a proper toolset, and there are thousands of DMs out there that could make a better PW than any studio.

  • superfly2000

    Posted Sep 22, 2009 7:03 am PT

    The thing is, NWN is already an MMO partly. WoW does not define what an MMO is. The term is quite broad really if you think about it. No matter that most of you might scream "Not another MMO!". If they make a new kind of MMO with more intelligence weaved into it than all thoose other together I am all for it. The thing is....this is to little and to late.

    By the time this comes out another company will have already filled this need.

    Besides...all you screaming "No MMO!" have been more than catered to the last years. Bioware has been releasing another single player game after the other. That even Dragon Age (which I would call the real predecessor to NWN1) would lack multiplayer is really a shock for me.

    Besides...this romour is nothing else than a romour.

  • simply-m

    Posted Sep 17, 2009 4:52 am PT

    An mmo? Oh, my... That is not a good idea. People would definitely prefer a NWN 3. Maybe other games would work, but NWN as an mmo, I don't think it will be a success.

  • NachoriTa

    Posted Sep 15, 2009 6:23 am PT

    oh noez..not mmo.. i loved both NwN 1 and 2 and all of their expansions and would want the next NwN not to be mmo...i actually enjoyed playin it alone..

  • htorne

    Posted Jun 25, 2009 12:45 pm PT

    What ever they do they should make it so that NWN 3 provides the same toolset and online options as NWN 1.

  • Cellpwn

    Posted Jun 24, 2009 8:29 pm PT

    Whoo, Neverwinter Nights! Not sure if MMO is the way to go though, how about a NWN 3?

  • september_basic

    Posted Jun 24, 2009 6:02 am PT

    There is a reason why Stormreach (D&D Online) didn't gain a massive following. It does not play like Dungeons and Dragons should. In D&D characters optimally do not follow the same route time and time again. Rather, emergent adventure occurs depending on their situation and what is being done by all player characters.

    If a high level wizard makes a tower of sorcery to assist themselves, so should it be that a tower of sorcery appears somewhere. There should be discussion on how to simulate such a thing.

    Of course the designers of Stormreach did NOT spend time discussing this nor on reading D&D reference material, I dare say.

  • SirSpoon84

    Posted Jun 19, 2009 12:05 am PT

    good news to me, love NWN

  • endocrine

    Posted Jun 18, 2009 8:41 pm PT

    The other D&D MMO was awful and they want to make another one? I am not shocked that Atari is in the negative.

  • houtx1836

    Posted Jun 18, 2009 11:57 am PT

    I like the NWN series but I feel this isn't the right fit for a MMO.

  • Innos007666

    Posted Jun 15, 2009 7:19 am PT

    I'm not happy hearing that... we will see; people we will see and then judge.

  • ericcouch

    Posted Jun 12, 2009 1:25 pm PT

    NWN was originally an MMO. It ran on AOL from 1991-1997 and was based on the gold box game engine and was financially successful.

  • yb202

    Posted Jun 12, 2009 1:24 pm PT

    @Humorguy_basic
    I quite enjoyed The witcher so I am not trying to diss it, but you need to understand sales figures and profits are relative. For a small start up developer a hit like the witcher is a massive thing, but for a publisher the size of Atari, its a different thing entirely, to put things into perspective I googled up a couple of revenue figures (for profits and costs do your own research) and got them for 3rd quarter 2008. Vivendi (Parent company of Blizzard) made just over $1 billion in revenue. When you look at the big picture, one hit wont cut it, one succesfull mmo is another thing, which is why companies are trying so hard.

    By the way , would love to know where you got your figures from , couple of months ago it was still 1.2 million copies worldwide.

  • Wordno

    Posted Jun 11, 2009 9:47 pm PT

    @Forhekset

    That's not Obsidian's fault that their games go released unfinished. The blame lies with Atari. They rushed Obsidian with both Kotor2 and NWN2 which would have been so much better if the greedy jerks at Atari let them finish their games.

  • forhekset

    Posted Jun 11, 2009 8:14 pm PT

    @Wordno

    Yet Obsidian have some blotches on their record, as far as KOTOR2 went out unfinished and stuff like that. But they do great work if they can finish it.

  • forhekset

    Posted Jun 11, 2009 8:12 pm PT

    First KOTOR goes MMO and now NWN. Boo. If the latter is true, thats two of my favorite singleplayer RPG franchises killed dead. Not that I'm not looking forward to TOR as it's looking good, but I still prefer my singleplayer epic stories and companion interactions.

  • Athonline

    Posted Jun 11, 2009 2:11 pm PT

    @ Humorguy_basic
    Agree. As for the WoW example, I hate it when some kids, WoW players don't know the original Warcraft series or say that it was trash and thus not as popular or that's why WoW has a different gameplay. WoW lunch success was the "Warcraft" on it's title, so was Warhammer, cause of it's IP.

  • Athonline

    Posted Jun 11, 2009 2:06 pm PT

    Cryptic is a good MMO developer, with brilliant ideas, good gameplay design and provide a great aftersale support with updates. However ffs, they are already polishing an mmo, developing a port for a console for it and developing a whole different in all aspects mmo. They need to focus on what they have on their tables now and give us a nice, polished lunch of Champions Online and finish Star Trek(a game I personally anticipate for), instead of developing another whole new different game.

  • nurse_tsunami

    Posted Jun 11, 2009 12:27 pm PT

    I can't see them making this right now. They are going to need all hands on deck to make their other 2 MMOs successful before they start thinking about other projects. If they want to do something with their D&D license, why not make a NWN3?

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