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Neverwinter Nights Put Out To Pasture
Right on the heels of the announcement of a new infinite dungeons module, via Broken Toys comes word that Atari has completely pulled support from the first Neverwinter Nights game. From the article: "There hasn't been any official word on all this yet but some of the most credible factors, that have been thrown around, include; the financial stability of Atari, and that they didn't want horses for NWN1 to come out officially before NWN2. This also appears to have affected other premium modules that were in production with other teams and there is probably no chance that Witches Wake 2 will ever get produced. It's hard to expect a publisher like Atari to keep on supporting patches forever, and in fact most games are lucky if they can get a few done. The NWN community has been very lucky to have had so many patches with so much free content. We shouldn't lose sight of that. However killing the premium module program makes no sense."
Actually, the issue seems to be more about rideable horses. The DLA team (http://www.dladventures.com/) was making rideable horses for NWN1 which would have been available in a premium module before NWN2 came out - and NWN2 doesn't have rideable horses.
Apparently Atari didn't like that very much and cut the premium modules program and NWN1 support just before the E3 show, to leave NWN2 in the spotlight.
That whooshing noise you heard was that joke going right over your head....
A OL_game)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neverwinter_Nights_(
Read and learn some history
There are a few misconceptions in your post. Unfortunately, lots of people make them.
First, WoW does not make $90 million per month. A large portion of those 6 million subscriptions Blizzard claims are in China, and Chinese players pay US$0.06/hour. They would have to play more than 8 hours per day to reach $15/month, and China has restrictions on how long minors can play these types of games. (I made a post on my professional blog with more details and links to references.)
Second, the 6 million subscription figure is worldwide. As I said above, most of those players are in China, a market that was not available to most of the previous games one might consider. The half-million figure you state is for North American subscriptions for previous games. Comparing this to Blizzard's last press release claiming 1 million North American subscriptions, we get a figure of 2x rather than 10x as you state.
Don't get me wrong, Blizzard certainly has done very well and surpassed the "old guard" quite handily. They also proved all the naysayers wrong that said the fantasy online game market was oversaturated and no new game could possibly do as well. But, it is best to keep the figures in proper perspective when discussing this topic.
All that said, I do agree with your central point: the Blizzard and Warcraft brands were well-loved for being great games from a pretty honest company. This definitely helped them make an online RPG that surpassed all previous records.
On the other hand, the Atari situation is different. I suspect most of the income goes to Bioware, so Atari doesn't make much off the premium modules; they likely expect to make more from sales of NWN2 and want as little competition as possible. Some people that won't get getting the newest patches and content might look to the sequel for an upgrade. Is it the smartest move? Not sure. But, the decision did not totally come out of left field.
Some thoughts from a game developer,
Brian "Psychochild" Green
MMO developer's blog
That is indeed the harshest aspect of the whole thing. I remember a year ago chatting with Bioware and getting ready to sign a contract to create some modules. My daughter had recently been born and I was fretting about turning my hobby into a paying gig, so I ended up deciding not to. I feel like I narrowly missed being hit by a bus.
I've heard similar negative things from other module builders. Working with Atari has been a nightmare for many, I think. Initially the modules were supposed to be non-Forgotten Realms, and then later that was switched to only Forgotten Realms. Because of that, the highest ranked module ended up being released for free.
I think Bioware meant well with their Digital Download project and in many ways it has been a success. It subsidized the support for NWN far beyond that of a normal game. As a bonus, many of the coding changes will make it into NWN2, as Bioware and Obsidian share their code. The unfortunate part is that Bioware and Obsidian are simply developers, and Atari and WotC must approve every little thing along the way. Sadly this leads to a situation where the developer means well, but doesn't really control the situation. In some ways I'm hoping this triggers a move away from licensed IPs and we'll see more original IP coming out. I'm guessing the mod teams will follow along to safer pastures.
As I watch Atari struggle financially, I worry about the future of NWN2, which I've invested a lot of time planning for. Yet in a sense I'm secretly happy to see them feel the consequences of their actions over the years.