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PC Games (Games) Role Playing (Games) Entertainment Games

Atari Hints At Plans For Baldur's Gate 3, NWN 2? 40

Posted by simoniker from the blatant-rumormongering dept.
Deekin_Scalesinger writes "Seems Atari may have let the cat out of the bag when one of their staff mentioned upcoming sequels for both the Baldur's Gate and Neverwinter Nights series in a posting on the official Atari forums. No ETA posted for either title, but any news is good news when it comes to Forgotten Realms games..." In related news, the Czech games magazine SCORE has its latest cover online, claiming Baldur's Gate III: Seven Gates Of Aznarr as the title, and back in the Atari forums, the spokesperson also notes: "Atari is the sole licensor of all D&D interactive properties. We could bring back Gold Box games if we were so inclined."
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Atari Hints At Plans For Baldur's Gate 3, NWN 2? More

Atari Hints At Plans For Baldur's Gate 3, NWN 2?

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  • Another game company (Score:1, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    somewhere in the world releases another sequel.

    And it becomes news.
  • Seems Atari may have let the cat out of the bag when one of their staff mentioned upcoming sequels for both the Baldur's Gate and Neverwinter Nights series in a posting on the official Atari forums.

    Is this a sequel as in 'Neverwinter Nights 2' or just another expansion? Considering the sheer amount of (potential) content the original game had (read : downloadable mods) and its crazy history of delay after delay (I still remember the occasional joke made about it before its release during table-top RP sessi

    • This is not another expansion from what I understand - more along the lines of BG and BG2. nwn.bioware.com has a thread on this on the HotU boards and it was noted that the Mods over got mysteriously quiet when this news broke. It was related to the robes issues - aka, we'll never have robes in NWN, we'll never have robes in NWN, we'll never have robes in NWN, we'll now not make any comment on this cause we're putting in robes but not announcing it just yet. Bioware said that they are definitely not involve
    • Kinda doubt that we will see a full-blown sequel to NWN, at least one that is developed by Bio. The first NWN was 5 years in development and Bio has said several times on their forums that they are not working on a sequel. They are actually moving *away* from D&D and the Realms and working on games using their own IP.

      I guess it's possible that it could be done by someone else, but how long would it take and would it include the Aurora Toolset? I'm not holding my breat here.

    • If they are, it won't be bioware doing it (Score:5, Informative)

      by *weasel ( 174362 ) on Monday April 05, 2004 @08:19AM (#8767860)
      There was a NWN2, BG3 rumor circulating from a probably mis-translated interview with Trent Oster of Bioware not too long ago.

      Their official forums have a flat-out denial [bioware.com] (Stanley Woo, 1/3rd down the thread). Which is quite a bit more substantive than the standard 'no comment' -- such as Mr Woo gives regarding KOTOR2 in his sig.

      Bioware already has 3 titles in development (Jade Empire [bioware.com], and 2 new titles 'based on two new intellectual properties, created and owned by Bioware' -- press release [bioware.com]). I understand they've grown a bit over the last decade, but I doubt they have enough staff to do even 4 games simultaneously, let alone 5.

      Besides, Bioware has been not-so-slowly backing away from the official campaign for NWN since it released (due the generally 'less positive' reactions of the vocal fans). Note how even the expansions didn't come close to touching that story, or that style of adventuring (hub style). I sincerely doubt they'd be picking that hot potato back up. Not to mention that the extra engineering they did to make their toolset doesn't seem to have earned them a corresponding reward from the market. I think they see themselves as better off spending that time crafting the incredible story and interactions people loved from BG(x) and KOTOR.

      If Atari is doing the sequels -- who knows who'd they be tapping for the content work. Particularly since Atari nee Interplay closed [ign.com] Black Isle back in December (killing another sequel in the process: Fallout 3).

  • NWN2 potential (Score:4, Interesting)

    by DarkkOne ( 741046 ) on Sunday April 04, 2004 @03:18AM (#8760260) Homepage Journal
    Okay, I don't know why exactly I'm posting this here, but 'eh. Neverwinter Nights promised to bring the full tabletop experience to the PC... maybe it'd be nice if number 2 actually did that... Allow the ability to add/allow custom rolls as the DM, for various purposes... And the ability to redefing the ENTIRE ruleset (at least, within the extent that you could adapt it to any of the other D20 system rulesets). Just what I'd really like to see out of it.

  • No NWN 2 (Score:5, Informative)

    by Cebu ( 161017 ) on Sunday April 04, 2004 @04:38AM (#8760494)
    I think it's fairly safe to say that NWN2 and BG3 are not in the works at this time, which means we won't see these titles for quite a long time if they ever appear....

    Georg Zoeller, Designer, Bioware:
    "Combined with the fact that we are indeed not going to reveal NWN 2 on E3 (because we are not working on a sequel to NWN), and the other incorrect/badly researched "news" I found on this site ("Bioware is secretly working on BG3", "Bioware releases free community expansion pack", "Bioware announced they work on three original titles, NWN2?") it is pretty safe to say that you can disregard this newspost. I don't know what Trent really said, but whatever it was, it was almost certainly mangled up very badly in translation.

    So again, we are not working on NWN2 and we are not working on another expansion pack for NWN, through we are working on other things to support NWN in the future (see Witch's Wake forum for details)."

    Stanley Woo, QA, Bioware:
    "Since we currently have no plans to make an NWN2, it would be highly unlikely that Trent would be talking about it at E3. This has been discussed on the HotU board as well, with the explanation being that the translation is incorrect. There has also been mention of GameStar being, perhaps, an unreliable source of accurate information."
    • Please point out where and when these comments where made.

      • Re:No NWN 2 (Score:3, Informative)

        by Cebu ( 161017 )
        On a thread [bioware.com] in the Bioware forums. There are more comments from people who work at Bioware, but I think those two comments were the most succinct.

    • Re:No NWN 2 (Score:2, Interesting)

      by StrongAxe ( 713301 )
      "Bioware releases free community expansion pack"

      Well, this part [bioware.com] at least is true; it was announced for quite a while beforehand, and finally released on March 24, 2004 [bioware.com].

      • Re:No NWN 2 (Score:2, Informative)

        by zerochance ( 716727 )
        Sorry, that one's not true either. At least it's somewhat misleading, since it is a community team, not Bioware, that is responsible for the Community Expansion Pack. All of this is wishful thinking based on the ravings of a whacky Atari PR flack and a badly mistranslated and exaggerated interview with someone at Bioware.

    • Re:No NWN 2 (Score:2, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward
      I found this on the Bioware Forums Bioware Forums [bioware.com]

      Posted 04/04/04 09:17:27 (GMT) by Georg Zoeller
      "Guys, there is nothing new and exciting to say about this topic, but I rather have you speculating and discussing in this thread than closing it and spawn 5 new ones :).
      So, our official answer is:
      "We can't comment on this quite yet, out of courtesy to our publishing partner Atari. However, we can definitely say that we really appreciate the great members of the BioWare Community and our goal is to co

      • Re:No NWN 2 (Score:4, Interesting)

        by 2Flower ( 216318 ) on Monday April 05, 2004 @09:38AM (#8768374) Homepage
        "However, we can definitely say that we really appreciate the great members of the BioWare Community and our goal is to continue supporting them with exciting new content in the future!"
        This does not contradict any previous statements."

        Translation:

        Bioware's been kicking around ideas in their forums for a 'Digital Download' service, which would let people buy new content and modules online to expand Neverwinter Nights. That's what they're probably talking about here, not that they're making an NWN sequel; hence 'this does not contradict any previous statements' jiving with both 'we're pondering DD content' and 'there is no NWN2 from us'.

        NWN2 would probably be Atari's bizniz, passed on to some other developer and I doubt it'd have the same extensibility NWN has.
    • the other modules of Witch's Wake would be a good surprise as this module started very well.

  • Baldur's Gate 3 (Score:4, Insightful)

    by balthan ( 130165 ) on Sunday April 04, 2004 @05:40AM (#8760601)
    I'm rather curious as to how they're going to make a sequel when BG2: Throne of Bhaal pretty much ended the plot line from the first two games.

    • Re:Baldur's Gate 3 (Score:4, Interesting)

      by JLester ( 9518 ) on Sunday April 04, 2004 @11:44AM (#8761624)
      I was wondering the same thing.

      I would love to see a Planescape:Torment sequel though. I was thinking something along the lines of the NPC's setting out to go to Hell and rescue The Nameless One.

      Jason
    • Could be the same as with Icewind Dale 2 - who says the sequel uswa the same characters. Baldur's Gate is a still a town in the game - could have #3 revolve around something different that the previous ones starting over with a new character.
    • Shortly after all of Black Isle's employees were let go, there were some postings on the Interplay forums about BG3 and Fallout3. BG3 was being designed by J.E. Sawyer with an original story written by him. It was to be only peripherialy related to the Child of Bhaal storyline. Unfortunately, worked stopped by BG3 when Atari yanked the license from Interplay for PC D&D games. Interplay retained a license for console games (i.e. Dark Alliance II). Interplay then sued Atari over the PC rights. Suppo

    • I dunno Icewind Dale II didn't have much to do with Icewind Dale.

      Besides, in the same way that Sun is using "Java desktop" when it's not Java, they'll probably use Baldur's Gate as a brand name. But really it's not so bad since Baldur's Gate is a city and certainly they could come up with some story about/in it. Unless Baldur's Gate gets destroyed at the end of ToB I couldn't say I never finished it.

      Ravi
    • *spoiler*

      Ahem, why not? I know there were rules in 2nd edition for Deity use, and I think people would buy a game like that up in droves.
  • It's not so far fetched. They can make a new graphical engine to go with Aurora as NWN2 and use those tools to make BG3.

  • More likely scenario (Score:3, Insightful)

    by xpccx ( 247431 ) on Sunday April 04, 2004 @10:25AM (#8761330)
    Everything I had read in the past led me to believe that Bioware was done with NWN and Wizards of the Coast [wizards.com]. The subject of the thread ("How much do YOU trust Atari now?") and the ensuing comments (all negative towards Atari) lead me to believe that the post from Grok (Atari public relations) was an attempt to quell the anger on the message board.

    If NWN2 and BG3 are in the making they're being done by someone else and I can only imagine how much they will be unlike their predecessors.

  • Those games were awesome. The final fight in Pool of Darkness, I never could beat it. I had all of my characters upt to level 30+, but the room was full of about 30 Great Wyrm Dracoliches, 30 Giant Iron Golems, 30 Bits o' Moander, and all the bosses you had fought previously. (Thorne, Tanetal, Kalistes, Gothmenes) Never did get to see the ending credits.
  • If its anything like last time, it looks like I will finally get it in 2009, thanks Atari!

  • Just a thought... (Score:1, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    I wonder if the "Baldurs Gate 3" actually refers to a new game in the "Baldurs Gate: Dark Alliance" series for PS2 and X-Box. While this wouldn't be anything like such staggeringly good news as a new PC Baldur's Gate game, it sounds a lot more plausible and wouldn't exactly be bad, given the BG:DA games are probably the best of the Diablo clones.
  • Aznar? like the former president of Spain?

    That's going to be a good joke here XD

    Anyway I imagine Atari will change the name with the spanish translation. Those seven gates sounds more like the gates to hell than anything else, we have made a lot of jokes about Aznar and God in Spain, maybe they want a marketing stunt. :)

  • BG3 (Score:1, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward
    BG3 might be out soon. It was one of the Black Isle products that got shelved when everybody there got laid off. Supposedly it was in an advanced stage of beta testing when the layoffs occurred. NwN2? Yeah, that might be out in 2009. BG3 could be here within a year.

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