In the realm of rumour right now, but Variety are reporting that sources have told them that the now Atari-owned Crytic are working on a Neverwinter Nights MMO for a 2011 release. In fact – I quote – “this reportedly was the primary reason Atari was interested in acquiring Cryptic late last year”. This would make three MMOs currently in development at Cryptic, which is quite the workload. This doesn’t actually surprise me that much, as last year when interviewing Jack Emmert about Champions, he talked about how it’s totally possible to make an MMO in 2 years – just not from scratch. He talks about lessons learned and knowledge, but here’s an interesting quote: “Here’s a business tip. Don’t keep building new engines. Take an engine, and improve it. Make three, four, five games out of it before you need to reboot. That’s a business thing”. More as it emerges, but it’s an interesting one to speculate on. NWN was never just a D&D RPG – level creation and virtual DMing was very much part of it. If they’re developing it, surely Cryptic will have to push this angle?
