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Near Death Atari pulls plug on new NWN1 content


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Do ya think that Atari is pulling a Dreamcatcher Interactive?

Take a look at this:

Atari blocks release of our Premium Mod

(It's about halfway down the page as of today's post date.)

I missed this the other week when this new came to light, but the gist is in this particular case this company was developing a mod for NWN1 which featured amongst other things, rideable horse which have just been cut from NWN2. These guys will be releasing what they have for free in the fall. (Translation NWN1 has too much life, and isn't much worse than NWN2 so it could potentially threaten NWN2 sales which Atari DESPERATELY need to survive. This could also hearken that Atari wants to pull a Bethesda and release trinkets and other gewgaws for a continued steady cash flow.)

Additionally rumours have it that Bioware had 3 other premium modules planned for release this summer and that those will never see light of day either. Bioware is going to release one final 1.68 patch ostensibly to correct a bug in thelast 1.67 patch, although I wouldn't be surprised to see some additional content as a farewell kiss to Atari.

I guess that I'll just happily wait for Dragon Age and give NWN2 a skip altogether now, unless it a) is somewhat decent, has a decent cocmmunity, and hits the bargain bins, or B) is eventually released as a combo-pack like NWN Diamond.

The good thing about Dragon Age is that all the IP will be Bioware's as they need no outside financing for development, and only need to work out some sort of distribution plan. And, if they treat it like NWN which they would have, apparently, kept on supporting indefinitely, well you get the idea...

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Darn, wanted to edit the above, but I missed the time lapse.

In any event, I also wanted to add that Atari has apparently missed royalty payments to Bioware since the last half of 2005.

Also, that Bioware itself was supporting additional patches, content, etc. for NWN1 for over the last year. Essentially Atari was just running the content by WoTC and collecting their cut from premium module sales.

This forum topic on bioware's boards has more info and links to various other bits of information, including some IRC chat logs.

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  • 2 months later...

Damn, wish that I could mod the title, but anyways, I've just uncovered another disturbing piece of info re NWN2 (if anyone cares):

It would appear that the inept Obsidian Studios are further damaging NWN2 by stalling, if not entirely removing the Dungeonmaster Client

So, now we're up to no ridable horses with combat(which has been added for use in NWN1 now), and loss of the DMC(very useful for more complicated multiplayer and other modules/worlds).

In other related news, Bioware has released patch v1.68 WITH visible cloaks(yes you can gloat over your +5 cloaks of protection now), and furthermore plans at least one more patch...

Care to bet that Obsidian doesn't give this kind of support?

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Sounds like they are not releasing with the game, but hopefully soon after:

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Quote: Posted 08/31/06 23:00:38 (GMT) by Rich Taylor

As the programmer that actually wrote the DM Client TDD, I guess I can give you a brief update on this subject that is so dear to some.

As always, I have to qualify it with the disclaimer that all this is subject to change, as there are always things beyond my power to control, but what I state here is how things stand at the moment.

Work on the DM Client will start near the time work on NWN2 finishes here (I think I'll take a short vacation somewhere in there =P).

The current plans are to implement the DM Client with 100% of the features the NWN1 one had with maybe some minor additions. Then we'll release it in the form of a patch as close as possible to when NWN2 is actually on the shelves.

Once that pass is finished, there are plans for more things on the DM Client. I have some ideas for it I think DMs are really going to love, but I can't really say anything else about it for now.

-Rich

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From: http://nwn2forums.bioware.com/forums/viewt...orum=100&sp=120

Hopefully it is still in. I will most likely hold off on buying this until I know that it is in or not.

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Yep, it does look like a DM client will appear after all. Supposedly it will be a separate download after the game is released.

And on a more ominous not, a quote from the Q&A:

quote:

Shane stated that the only definite additions after the release of the game will be the DM Client, and that other plans for work on the game after release will be decided after the game is on the shelves. He added that since the publisher, Atari, is much more involved with the release of Neverwinter Nights 2 than they were with its predecessor, a lot of the development after the game's release is dependant on them.

or as I would take it:

Expect *NOTHING* extra unless this game saves Atari. It's really too bad that Bioware itself doesn't own the license for AD&D and other D20 products...

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