INTERPLAY'S BLACK ISLE STUDIOS ANNOUNCES LATEST DUNGEONS & DRAGONS TITLE
(The Online "Neverwinter Nights" Will Use 3rd Edition Dungeons & Dragons Rules Set)
Black Isle Studios, the role-playing game (RPG) division of Interplay Entertainment Corp. (NASDAQ: IPLY) and BioWare Corp. today announced from the show floor at the GEN CON Game Fair 1999, their latest development /publishing venture with Neverwinter Nights (NWN). The launch comes on the tails of Wizards of the Coast's announcement to develop the 3rd Edition Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) rules set which Neverwinter Nights will use. This marks the first time the Dungeons & Dragons rules have been revised in over ten years, and is a huge milestone for Wizards of the Coast, fans of D&D and all of its licensees.
Neverwinter Nights is due to ship in the first quarter of 2001 for Windows 95/98 PCs and will utilize the BioWare Omen 3D game system. NWN is set in the D&D Forgotten Realms campaign setting and has an epic story-line in a gameworld that focuses on the multi-player component. This creates an environment more akin to the pen and paper model that D&D enthusiasts are accustomed to. In the spirit of the original Neverwinter Nights that thousands enjoyed on America Onliner, the game play is taken to a higher level by allowing players to create their own game worlds. Players can craft castles and place monsters, landscape and treasure with a few simple mouse clicks. They are then able to host their own adventures and multi-player servers on the Internet.
The player will also be able to play the role of "dungeon master" or "DM," allowing him/her to interact in real time with the other players in the game. The dungeon master mode offers the "DM" an opportunity to assume the roles of non-player characters and alter the course of the other players' experiences.
Best known for the development of the award-winning title, Baldur's Gate, also based on the D&D rules set, BioWare Corp. is aiming to expand on the multi-player role-playing game concept, by providing gamers with the ultimate D&D experience. BioWare has already begun development on a version of Neverwinter Nights for Apple Macintosh computers, but a distribution deal has not yet been negotiated.
"We are really thrilled to be working with the same team of people who created Baldur's Gate. Once again, Black Isle Studios, BioWare and TSR/Wizards of the Coast have come together to advance the ultimate role-playing game experience to the next level," said Dr. Ray Muzyka, BioWare's CFO and joint CEO.
Black Isle Studios is currently in development on the Advanced Dungeons & Dragonsr title, Planescape: Torment, which will use a modified version of the BioWare Infinity engine from Baldur's Gate. The game is being developed in-house at Black Isle, and will be available for Windows 95/98 computers this autumn.
More about Wizards.
Wizards of the Coast, the worldwide market share leader in the trading card game and tabletop roleplaying game categories, is a leading developer and publisher of game-based entertainment products as well as the owner and operator of one of the nation's largest specialty game retail chains. Producing both the Pokémon and world's best-selling Magic: The Gathering trading card games, the company holds an exclusive patent on the play mechanic of trading card games. Publisher of adventure games such as the classic Dungeons & Dragons games, family card and board games and electronic media products, Wizards of the Coast is also one of the world's leading fantasy and science fiction book publishers. The company's retail locations, many of which provide game-play areas, include a growing chain of Wizards of the Coast specialty game retail stores as well as 53 The Game Keeper stores. Headquartered near Seattle, Washington, Wizards of the Coast has international offices in Antwerp, Paris, Milan, London and Beijing. For more information on Wizards of the Coast, visit the company's web site and electronic retail store at http://www.wizards.com.
