So for those not following the latest news in the MMO world, there's going to be a new kid on the block soon. After a long and troubled history, the latest in Dungeons and Dragons themed MMORPG games will apparently launch this year.
To sum up some of the history behind this game:
In 2003, Atari and Turbine team up to launch a MMORPG themed on the Dungeons and Dragons ruleset by Wizards of the Coast. With Atari as publisher and Turbine as developer, the game launched at the end of February 2006 as
Dungeons & Dragons Online: Stormreach.
The game fares poorly after launch. Several key developers within the Turbine group leave the team to work on other projects. The game rolls along until October 2008, when a long drought of content updates begins. Turbine remains tight-lipped on their plans until announcing in June 2009 that the game will convert to a free-to-play model with a micro-transaction store providing the game revenue. Meanwhile,
Atari buys Cryptic Studios in December 2008, the publisher of City of Heroes, Champions Online (to be released 2009) Star Trek Online(to be released 2010) and a third MMORPG game as-yet unannounced (to be released 2011).
In August of 2009,
Turbine launches a $30M lawsuit against Atari, claiming Atari is sabotaging the company in various ways and alleging Atari is undercutting the company
in preparation to launch their own D&D MMORPG. Atari counter-sues Turbine claiming they're withholding money owed them in game revenue.
Atari announces in August 2010 that
Cryptic Studios will release a Neverwinter game in 2011 that will support between one to five players questing together, but
not in the traditional MMORPG sense.
This of course agitates the lawsuit with Turbine, which drags on until an out of court settlement shortly after
Turbine is acquired by Warner Bros in April 2010 (the theory is they actually wanted the company for their MMO of the Lord of the Rings, which WB owns all other rights to, and didn't really care about their D&D franchise). There's also another shitstorm between Atari and Hasbro over partnership with Namco Bandai, resulting in them getting slapped with another lawsuit, the result of which mean
Atari cannot create any further D&D games. Cryptic Studios posts net losses of $18M and $7.5M for the last two financial years, prompting
Atari to announce it as a discontinued operation in May 2011 and seek someone to buy it off of them. The release of Neverwinter gets delayed. Atari ends up
selling off Cryptic Studios to Chinese MMORPG company Perfect World less than a month later for $50M.
Cryptic announces in October 2011 that
they will actually publish Neverwinter as a true MMORPG using a free-to-play model right from the start, similar to many of the other titles in the Perfect World franchise. The significant changes this will entail mean the game release is delayed, first to 2012, then to 2013.
In February 2013 Neverwinter hosts its first beta weekend. A second beta weekend is held in March. A third is planned at an unspecified point in the future, with signs that the game is nearing launch.
So, now that the history of the game is out in the open, what's the verdict on this one?