Neverwinter co-op D&D RPG revealed

Ten months after it was announced, Cryptic's mysterious co-op D&D RPG set in the city of Neverwinter has finally been given its grand unveiling, with pictures, a trailer, the whole shebang.

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A new co-op-oriented Dungeons & Dragons game named simply Neverwinter was announced by Atari back in August 2010, but the publisher had very little to say about it after that. Now, fresh out of E3, Atari's released screenshots, a trailer, a website, and new details for Cryptic's RPG.

Requiring an Internet connection, Neverwinter is intended to be played cooperatively. If you're feeling anti-social, though, AI henchmen will be on hand to help as you plunder dungeons and whatnot.

You'll get to make your own content with a toolkit named The Foundry, creating everything from environments to NPCs. "Players will be able to shape and add to the world of Neverwinter by creating and building their own adventures or full-fledged campaigns from the ground up," Atari says. Foundry content can be shared with others, while player ratings will help you find the good stuff.

While Cryptic's content creation tools for Champions Online and Star Trek Online weren't added until after the MMORPGs launched, it seems Neverwinter will support player creations from the get-go.

Commenting on the game's price and the possibility of subscription fees, Atari simply says, "Pricing for Neverwinter has not been finalized at this time." Should Neverwinter launch with subscription fees, don't expect them to last forever; recent-ish Atari-published MMORPGs Champions Online and Dungeons & Dragons Online both launched with subscription fees but were later turned free-to-play.

Development is apparently not affected by Atari's recent sale of Cryptic to Perfect World, as the studio's still working on Neverwinter.

Neverwinter was originally slated to launch in the fourth quarter of 2011 but all Atari has to say now is, "An exact release date for Neverwinter has not been announced at this time."

Here's the E3 teaser trailer:

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