Neverwinter Nights is GOLD!

[GameBanshee News]

BioWare's Brad Grier just sent us the official press release confirming that Neverwinter Nights is indeed GOLD. Here's a full rip from my inbox:

BioWare's Dungeons & Dragons Masterpiece Is Complete

LOS ANGELES - June 11, 2002 - Infogrames, Inc. (Nasdaq: IFGM), a leading global publisher of interactive entertainment software, today announced that the long awaited and highly anticipated epic, Neverwinter Nights™, has completed development and will ship to retail stores under the Company's Atari label before the end of June. The most complete software adaptation of the classic pen-and-paper Dungeons & Dragons® role-playing game ever, Neverwinter Nights is the latest game from BioWare Corp., creators of the 4 million selling Baldur's Gate series.

"Finally, PC gamers the world over can breathe - their dream computer game is complete and only days away from their PCs," said Jean-Philippe Agati, senior vice president and general manager of Infogrames' Los Angeles studio. "Neverwinter Nights has lived up to all of its promises - engaging and exciting single player campaign, a groundbreaking multiplayer component, never-before-seen user editing abilities and, for the first time ever, a true translation of the D&D® Dungeon Master to electronic entertainment."

Neverwinter Nights redefines the electronic role-playing game genre using the fully 3D BioWare Aurora Engine and the Third Edition of the Dungeons & Dragons core rulebook, published by Wizards of the Coast, Inc. The game contains an amazing 60-100 hour single player campaign that is also playable in multiplayer mode. More than just a game, Neverwinter Nights breaks new ground as the first complete role-playing system for the computer platform, allowing its players to step into the shoes of the Dungeon Master to tell their own stories and create their own adventures in the spirit of the exciting pen and paper original.

"We're very proud of the hard work every member of our development team has put into Neverwinter Nights over the last five years," said Greg Zeschuk, Joint CEO of BioWare Corp. and Co-Executive Producer of Neverwinter Nights. "When we started developing Neverwinter Nights, we realized that technology would reach the point where we could actually have a 3rd Edition Dungeons & Dragons computer game that brought the best social elements of traditional kitchen-table pen-and-paper role-playing to people all over the world through their computer and the Internet. We're very fortunate to be able to do this."

"Neverwinter Nights was designed to be everything anybody could ever want in a D&D™ role-playing game," said Ray Muzyka, Joint CEO of BioWare Corp and Co-Executive Producer of Neverwinter Nights. "The development team - a group of exceptionally creative, smart people - has done an amazing job: Neverwinter Nights has an incredibly engaging 60-100 hour official campaign, playable in either single-player or in multiplayer mode. Everything in the campaign has been built with the same BioWare Aurora Neverwinter Toolset that is also bundled with the game. We've enabled gamers to join their friends online and play through adventure modules created by fans and Neverwinter Nights community members, together with a Dungeon Master if they so choose! The game looks amazing - the BioWare Aurora Engine is capable of some amazing graphical effects. Overall, we just can't wait to see what the Neverwinter Nights community comes up with when they've got the game and its powerful tools in their hands!"

The PC version of Neverwinter Nights will ship to retailers before the end of June. Linux gamers can anticipate the online release of the Neverwinter Nights server at launch and the client program shortly afterward. Linux gamers will still need the Windows version of the game to register at the Neverwinter Nights community site (http://neverwinternights.com) and to import essential game resources into their Linux server and game.