BitSnark

Atari Europe, in conjunction with Cryptic Studios have announced the development of Dungeons & Dragons: Neverwinter; a new title in the Neverwinter franchise that was first started on the PC by Bioware back in the hazy days of 2002.

Strange perhaps, is the choice of developer in this instance. Cryptic Studios who brought us MMO titles Star Trek Online and City of Heroes amongst others, seems like a bit of a leftfield choice to develop the game. With their expertise almost exclusively coming from MMO development, it’ll be interesting to see how the final game turns out.

Due in Q3 2011 for the PC, the title allows gamers to become one of five classic D&D classes and join forces with friends or the computer AI to create parties to tackle quests, dungeons and the overaching story. Additionally, a user-friendly content generation system called Forge is also promised.

The story of Neverwinter itself is built upon the forthcoming novel trilogy release from longtime D&D author R.A. Salvatore; with the first book ‘Gauntlgrym’, releasing on October 5th this year and providing the narrative foundation for the Neverwinter game.

No media has been released yet regarding the title, but it’ll be one to keep an eye on.