Atari Reviving Baldur's Gate, Other Franchises

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Publisher Atari is planning to resurrect several of its beloved franchises, including Baldur's Gate, Dungeons & Dragons and Test Drive--just not in the next year.

"You will hear more from these but not today, because we're focused on 2009," said Phil Harrison, president of Atari owner Infogrames, according to Eurogamer.

PC entries in the Baldur's Gate series have been traditionally developed by BioWare, which is now owned by rival publisher EA. The last Baldur's Gate release on PC, the Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal expansion, arrived in 2001. BioWare is currently plotting its returning to the realm of PC fantasy-RPGs with next year's Dragon Age.

The Baldur's Gate series has also hit consoles, beginning with PlayStation 2 in 2001 and followed by an Xbox and GameCube release in 2002. All three were developed by Snowblind Studios. Black Isle then helmed a 2004 sequel for PS2 and Xbox.

As for Test Drive, the racing series has laid dormant since Test Drive Unlimited, which hit Xbox 360 in 2006 and then hit PC, PlayStation 2 and PSP in 2007. The PC and 360 editions were developed by Eden Games, with Melbourne House handling the others.

Chris Faylor was previously a games journalist creating content at Shacknews.

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From The Chatty
  • reply
    December 2, 2008 9:08 AM

    This is the most important news of this year....
    Unless there is an article on the status update of Duke4ever by the end of the year.

    • reply
      December 2, 2008 9:13 AM

      I really enjoyed Test Drive Unlimited. If only they would have given more support to that title. The console versions got SOME love..but still not enough to keep it going strong. Hopefully they see how well Burnout Paradise is doing on the DLC / Support front and get some inspiration - and think about supporting games for the long haul.

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