Atari - Planning to Revisit NWN, Baldur's Gate

Eurogamer reports live from an ongoing Atari press conference that the publisher plans to revisit NWN and Baldur's Gate in the future - nothing we haven't heard before if you recall the rumours a few years ago that BG3 was under development after a similar comment:

Atari plans to revisit the likes of Baldur's Gate, Dungeons & Dragons, Neverwinter Nights and Test Drive Unlimited, but not in the next 12 months.
"You will hear more from these but not today, because we're focused on 2009," Infogrames president Phil Harrison told hacks assembled at a press event this afternoon.

More information.

What does "revisit" mean in this context ?
New games or just a re-release ?

Originally Posted by Alrik Fassbauer
What does "revisit" mean in this context ?
New games or just a re-release ?

Hard to imagine how they could re-release them - they've already had multiple releases.

I think it means "We will do another D&D game like the ones mentioned above". No promise it will be Baldur's Gate 3 or NWN3. Maybe IWD 3? They transfered the name rights this year. Could be a good title for a multiplattform approach. The Fallout 3 for D&D series.

How about a post apocalyptic game set around the destroyed ruins of BG where you're sent on a quest to find your father to fix a water problem!!

It means: "we made money with these in the past, so we need to use these franchises again in the future".

How, what, when, where remains to be seen but they'd be crazy not to continue all these in some form or another.

Originally Posted by Avantenor
Maybe IWD 3? They transfered the name rights this year. Could be a good title for a multiplattform approach.

Oh, *excellent*!! I would love to see them do an Icewind Dale makeover like was done with the Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance games. I think the original Icewind Dale gameplay comes closer to that action RPG approach in the first place. This would be a great idea, but I fear it will never happen.

I'd like to see Obsidian take at least one more shot at a PC D&D RPG. I guess that could be BG3 or NWN3. If it's BG3, I wonder if it's the "Black Hound" mod for NWN2 that J.E. Sawyer was supposedly working on. It might explain why that one completely dropped off the face of the earth since last year.

I just hope we don't see Dark Alliance 3

The Black Hound never had anything to do with Baldurs Gate as far as I know, I can't quite remember the story behind it… I believe they temporarily named it Baldurs Gate for some reason but as far as I know, it was never actually meant to be a Baldurs Gate game.

Wouldn't surprise me if Obsidian is doing either NWN3 or BG3. They have one as of yet unnanounced project in the works (pretty early in development I believe). I think it'd be fun to see them take a stab at it but I am worried that it will lead to consolization of the games since I would guess they'd aim for consoles also. If not (or if it was simply ported to consoles later on) it'd be cool though.

Even so, I'd rather see something different other than BG3. It's not that interesting of a franchise, start up a new D&D game instead. NWN3 could be allright since it's more about the whole modding bit, and I'd like to see how Obsidian would design it now that they've had the experience of dealing with the community and so on.

I saw bits and pieces of what the Black Hound was/is going to be about. It seems to be a story focused on a personal journey, set somewhere bleak, with a tint of horror. Could've been really good if it ever bore fruit, and from the sound of it, it has very little in common with the BG series.

There's an interview at GameBanshee that has the details on The Black Hound.

There's been no update on Josh's site for a long time but it is still up. Basically, it was going to be called BG3 because Interplay didn't have the rights to call any D&D title anything other than BG or IWD.

Last I heard from JE Sawyer, he was waiting for SoZ to come out since there were some things in it he wanted to make use of. Not sure if he's started on it again.

Damn all you licence holders, thinking you know best what's good for the classic series! Damn you!

Actually, I would love to see another Baldur'sGate-like game, or a NWN 3. Revisiting NWN is pretty obvious, but BG… well, the BG saga is over in terms of story. They could just think of another title, a new one… hm, and that's how NWN was born in the first place, wasn't it?

Originally Posted by Corwin
How about a post apocalyptic game set around the destroyed ruins of BG where you're sent on a quest to find your father to fix a water problem!!

Originally Posted by Corwin
How about a post apocalyptic game set around the destroyed ruins of BG where you're sent on a quest to find your father to fix a water problem!!

That's 4e isn't it?

Well, this doesn't sound too bad imho. Instead of some atom cataclysm, there's some magic cataclysm, but otherwise it could be the same … Plus Elves and Dwarves, of course …

I'd like to see the Sword Coast, specifically Baldur's Gate revisited, but of course nothing to do with the original saga. How about something that occurs earlier, maybe during the founding of Candlekeep or Baldur's Gate itself?

once again, I seem to recall when OE left BIS and formed their own company they managed to finagle the rights for IWD to take with them.

I've also said it before (so I'll also say it again) IMO the Black Hound will turn into BG3. Now that they say "not 2009" I'm a little less certain.

With the lack of marketing $ and very few copies that seem to be on the shelves (I've checked Best Buy, Walmart and Circuit City - mind you the last is in bankruptcy and has no credit) this whole announcement strikes as a plea for investor cash for vapourware - sort of like when MS would make announcements about future OS's when DR-DOS released new versions.

Ah, DR-DOS, now that was a fun OS. Much preferred it to anything M$ had available at the time!!

Originally Posted by blatantninja
I'd like to see the Sword Coast, specifically Baldur's Gate revisited, but of course nothing to do with the original saga. How about something that occurs earlier, maybe during the founding of Candlekeep or Baldur's Gate itself?

I agree that would be great. I really like the Forgotten Realms setting, but I don't want to see "Baldur's Gate 3." They need to leave that name alone.