Bioware, Interplay, Infogrames settle re: NWN

[Lemernis]

This is great news!

The press release:

Neverwinter Nights to be published worldwide by Infogrames

EDMONTON, Alberta, Canada - January 24th, 2002 - BioWare and Interplay have reached a settlement ending the dispute between the companies. Per the agreement, Neverwinter Nights, developed by BioWare, will be published by Infogrames worldwide subject to certain pre-existing Interplay licenses. In addition other matters have been resolved to both parties' mutual satisfaction.

Ray Muzyka, joint CEO of BioWare Corp. said, "We're delighted that we have reached an amicable settlement agreement in our dispute with Interplay, and we look forward to completing the development work on Neverwinter Nights and having Infogrames publish this product."

Added Herve Caen, President of Interplay: "We are very pleased with the outcome of this situation and we are looking forward to a successful and mutually beneficial relationship with Infogrames and BioWare on this and other titles."

About BioWare Corp.
BioWare Corp. is an electronic entertainment company that develops computer and console games. Our published projects include: Shattered Steel, the genre-defining Baldur's Gate role playing game series, MDK2 for Dreamcast and PC, and MDK2: Armageddon for Playstation2. Recently, BioWare released Baldur's Gate: Throne of Bhaal, the massive expansion pack to Baldur's Gate II Shadows of Amn. BioWare's developers are currently hard at work on two titles to be released this year; Neverwinter Nights - a Dungeons and Dragons® fantasy role playing game for singleplayer and multiplayer (to be published by Infogrames), and Star Wars® Knights of the Old Republic (to be published by LucasArts). As well, development is under way on a new, unannounced, third project.

Here is the link:

http://www.bioware.com/bioware_info/press_releases/InfogramesFinal/InfogramesFinal.html

Now if the game is released on schedule! If so we have only 8 weeks to wait. :-D

By the way, if anyone here is interested in forming an adventuring party for Neverwinter Nights please let me know. I expect most DMs are still in the process of dreaming up their modules, but I have spoken with quite few and I'm confident that I can find a game that will not be dominated by guilds. I'd rather find one that is designed for maybe ten adventuring parties of 2-6. I don't think that will be a problem as I know where to look, but I do want to find a really good DM.

Oh--and if you wanted to start out as a solo player that is good too. In fact, as I see it, if the majority of the players in an NWN game begin as solo players then that would make the game very interesting indeed. But I'm sure many will want to begin within the safety of a small group.

[ 01-25-2002: Message edited by: Lemernis ]

[Dreamer128]

Thats nice, but doesnt this thread belong on the NWN board?

[Lemernis]

Yeah, I did think of that, but actually I would rather have it here if the mods don't mind. The folks that I've become somewhat acquainted with at IW are here on this particular board, and may never visit the NWN board at all. It's certainly relevant info to anyone who plays BG1/Tales/Dark Side with NWN being Bioware's successor to the IE games, etc.

[Darkman]

I think this news is important enough to remain here, IMO [img]smile.gif[/img]

As for NWN, I'm probably going to start out in single player mode and mess around a little bit with creating my own module. I've never played PnP games before and the only online people I know are from Diablo. I don't know any DM's and I've never played with anyone from IronWorks Hopefully the solo game will be as good as they claim and the module editor easy to use.

[Lemernis]

It will really shine in Multiplayer, though. God it looks great.

One recent development re: NWN's SP mode that has many people bumming is that you will not be able to assemble a party of up to five NPCs that you can control as you did in BG. Instead you will get only one NPC. So instead being like the Fellowship of the Ring, you'll be more like Don Quixote and Sancho Panza.

[ 01-25-2002: Message edited by: Lemernis ]