Is this the end for Atari?

[ColdWizard]

I hope "Atari" dies a painful death without taking NWN and NWN 2 down with it.

[Qilue]

We've all seen this before.

What will most likely happen is Atari will last long enough to release a buggy mess called Neverwinter Nights 2 that will be vilified across internet. At which point Atari will go belly up taking the game with them to the grave.

Personally, I wont be buying it unless at least 2 patches are released and at least ten good reviews are written.

[DrSpike]

Wow, someone got out of the wrong side of bed this morning.

Sadly, I have to agree it's a real possibility.

[ColdWizard]

I too will have serious reservations with the quality of NWN 2. I'll probably wait for at least one expansion before purchase.

[Grumbold]

If NWN2 is supposed to be a better NWN, having the publisher die a messy death is not good news, even if the original software arrives in good condition. It was the regular influx of more professional content that made NWN as good as it was.

Personally I feel sorry for Obsidian Entertainment employees too. They leave Black Isle because the games aren't getting made properly in large part because of publisher pressures then what do they have to do? Release KotoR2 early with cuts, then have the same fate hover over NWN2. For that sort of grief, they could have stayed and finished Fallout 3 on schedule

[DrSpike]

Maybe they are far enough along that it can't be screwed up?

[ColdWizard]

I'm confident in "Atari"'s ability to fubar anything and everything.

[Grumbold]

They might not screw up the first release, but if they go down in flames holding the rights, there won't be a SoU or HotU xpack or downloadable premium modules to follow. I don't see how the first discs of NWN2 can conceivably outdo all the content now available for NWN, even if it miraculously appeared bug free and complete.

[DrSpike]

Well at least if they get it right we would get a constant stream of fan content. Some of it is actually rather good.

[Urban Ranger]

Well if they go down in flames the rights to those titles probably won't be expensive for another developer to acquire.

[DrSpike]

I bid £5.50!

[DaShi]

They also need the rights to D&D.

[El_Cid]

Originally posted by DrSpike
I bid £5.50!

be carefull you dont aquire their massive debt on that bid!

[DrSpike]

Good point. I'll wait till they declare themselves bankrupt and then swoop.

[Grumbold]

The rights could be tied up in lawyersville for years, that's the biggest worry. People would eagerly snap up the rights to future D&D games and thoose aren't too hard to separate off, but the rights to support and expand on an established product? If Obsidian couldn't afford them themselves, you might find nobody would touch them.