Neverwinter Online RPG Heading To PC in 2011
A new Neverwinter-based online RPG is heading to the PC by the end of 2011.
Monday Atari and Cryptic Studios announced Neverwinter, an online role-playing game for the PC slated for a Q4 2011 release. As the name indicates, the game will be based on the popular city residing within the fictional Dungeons & Dragons realm. The game's storyline is also "inspired" by the upcoming Neverwinter trilogy from New York Times best-selling author, R.A. Salvatore.
"Once a bustling location, Neverwinter has faced a great many disasters in the past hundred years. Rule of the city remains unclear following the unfortunate demise of the last Lord of Neverwinter and factions still battle for dominance after the all-consuming Spellplague took a high toll on the population," Atari said in a press release. "Even Neverwinter's dead are beginning to rise from their graves and march upon the city they once called home."
Although additional details weren't provided, players will generate a character based on one of five "classic" D&D classes. They will then team up with human or AI-controlled allies to form a five-member co-op party (ala Guild Wars?). "Players also create their own storylines and quests utilizing an extremely user-friendly content generation system, tentatively codenamed Forge," Atari added.
R.A. Salvatore's first Neverwinter book, Gauntlgrym, is slated to hit shelves in October, and will lay the groundwork for the PC game. According to Atari, the novel "previews the settings, characters and monsters from the PC game and details the events that lead up to this highly anticipated PC gaming experience."
Developer Cryptic Studios is known for many popular MMORPGs for the PC including Star Trek Online, City of Heroes, City of Villains, and Champions Online.
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Kevin Parrish has over a decade of experience as a writer, editor, and product tester. His work focused on computer hardware, networking equipment, smartphones, tablets, gaming consoles, and other internet-connected devices. His work has appeared in Tom's Hardware, Tom's Guide, Maximum PC, Digital Trends, Android Authority, How-To Geek, Lifewire, and others.
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rooseveltdon bad timing, with Guild wars 2, WoW: cataclysm and DDO all out there this is not good time to come out with yet another fantasy based MMORPG plus Diablo 3 is coming out soon...not a good time for this game to come outReply -
Maxor127 Hmmm... so basically they're going to ruin another RPG by turning it into an MMO like they're doing with KOTOR.Reply -
jamoise If bioware were in the production somewhere, Id say there would be a following for it, but as it is... I have no idea how well it would do in this already saturated market.Reply -
LLJones I hope it won't look like WoW. Saw an ad for AOE and thought "great! loved that game, now I can play online". Then I saw scene shots and the the first thing to go through my head was that it was a WoW clone.Reply
I understand that they want to be playable by everyone, but loose the cartoon look and try to build a game that can really take advantage of modern gpu's or build two versions. One that can be used by anyone and one that will take full advantage of whatever Xfired or sli'd unit you are using.Or maybe your lucky and are running just one high end card. -
Dirtman73 MMOs are losing popularity; I don't see this game lasting more than a couple years. The market is crowded enough right now as it is.Reply -
nforce4max Dirtman73MMOs are losing popularity; I don't see this game lasting more than a couple years. The market is crowded enough right now as it is.Reply
Agreed and people are starting to move onto other types of games that don't require 1000+ hours gameplay. -
Kelavarus rooseveltdonbad timing, with Guild wars 2, WoW: cataclysm and DDO all out there this is not good time to come out with yet another fantasy based MMORPG plus Diablo 3 is coming out soon...not a good time for this game to come outMaxor127Hmmm... so basically they're going to ruin another RPG by turning it into an MMO like they're doing with KOTOR.Dirtman73MMOs are losing popularity; I don't see this game lasting more than a couple years. The market is crowded enough right now as it is.Lunatic MagnetAnother fantasy MMO woohooo . . . oh wait.Reply
Geez, people, learn to read. Had to quote all these because it's NOT an MMO. It's an online RPG. You can play co-op with up to five people.
The irony of this is that Neverwinter Nights 1 and 2 could have you play on servers with up to at least 32 people, maybe more, I can't remember.
To restate: This is not an MMO.