Cryptic's Neverwinter becomes F2P MMO

By Robert Purchese Published 6 October, 2011

Now better suits new owner's portfolio.

Cryptic Studios' pledge to leave behind MMOs and pursue games like Neverwinter, a co-operative online RPG, appears to have been for nothing - Neverwinter will henceforth become a full-scale, free-to-play MMO.

Perhaps, following the Cryptic acquisition by Chinese free-to-play specialist Perfect World Entertainment, the alteration was always inevitable.

Neverwinter's change of direction has meant a delay until the tail-end of 2012, IGN reported.

The free-to-play Neverwinter MMO will use a twitchy combat system and be built on the same, but modified, engine that powers Star Trek Online and Champions Online.

Interestingly, all Neverwinter content updates will be as free as the game itself, and none of the content will be reserved for paying customers.

Money will be made through micro-transactions for game-helping consumables, as well as for pets and cosmetic items.

Neverwinter, a Dungeons & Dragons fiction, will be based on the 4th Edition D&D rules. As such, Neverwinter will face sturdy competition from Turbine's long-running and free-to-play MMO Dungeons & Dragons Online.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds. @Clert on Twitter.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (12) Latest comment 8 months ago

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  • Flipper79 #1 8 months ago

    And who wouldn't want to play a rushed mmo, with microtransaction boosting made by developers who likely wanted to make a completely different game. It has win all over it!

  • Hunam #2 8 months ago

    Boom. There goes that idea. Sounded good to be honest, a co-op RPG rather than MMO. Alas.

  • Kremlik Verified Co-Founder, Crash To Desktop #3 8 months ago

    Well to be fair PW's cash shop system always was a bit more fair because you could sell on the items you buy from it (read: PLEX), plus most of the non-fluff/boost items could be found in game or bought with game money.

    Then look at the way Turbine has done DDO's shop system, key points are the same, you can buy your way thru the game or just grind it - but your not screwed if you opt free.

    Yes F2P normally screams the whole 'IF YOU DON'T PAY US DON'T PLAY' all over it with most companies but Turbine (at least with DDO) and Perfect World are a bit less like twats over it.

    As long as PW as the choak chain around Cryptic's neck when taking the team out for walkies so not to crap everywhere over the place, we may actually get to have a choice in which D&D world we would like to be in

  • dirtysteve #4 8 months ago

    I don't normally succumb to it, but the nerd-rage is building with this one. I gave them the benefit of the doubt when I saw they were doing the next Neverwinter, even when the mmo-like multiplayer was announced.
    But no singleplayer at all? Another licence pared down to fir their mmo engines?
    Fuck you Cryptic, I hope you lose the licence and a more respectful dev gets it.

  • Kanjin #5 8 months ago

    @Kremlik I take it you've played Perfect World then? You know how those with real life money can faceroll those without it, or at least those not willing to leave a computer on day in day out to sell in game resources. Not to mention PW's terrible record for fixing bugs and generating interesting content.

    I just hope I'm wrong about Neverwinter.

  • Caimbeul #6 8 months ago

    What a load of Shite! was keenly on my radar, now it has vanished altogether. I bet that it would have made more money if it had stayed as a co-op rather than a poxy MMO.

    I HATE MMO's (Rarrrggghhhhh Nerd Rage!)

  • DFawkes #7 8 months ago

    I honest wouldn't worry about it being what Cryptic calls an MMO, looking at the models for their current games they'll be heavily instanced (less so Champions, which does have a few hubs). In Star Trek Online, there are a few open MMO style areas but generally it's basically a lobby system for co-op missions. Given that, I wouldn't be surprised if the MMO part is basically a social hub, and it basically boiled down to co-op teams.

    That's just guesswork on my part of course, but given it's built on the same engine (and probably the same network architecture) it's unlikely to be a fully open world MMO. Cryptic haven't really done a fantasy game like Neverwinter Nights before though, so I'm really curious to see how they handle it.

  • Desheep #8 8 months ago

    FFS. I don't want to be forced into playing with other people as online gamers are assholes. There better be botz.

    Go fuck yourselves, neggers. People like you are the reason I needed to make the post in the first place.
    Edited by Desheep at 06/10/11 @ 21:34

  • spudsbuckley #9 8 months ago

    Loved the other Neverwinter games.

    Won't be playing this game as it looks like they are abandoning it before it even comes out.

  • Lancezh #10 8 months ago

    This boat just sunk for every Neverwinter nights fan, i dont know how they want to get money out of this with noone playing, but hey, maybe they have a plan for that!

  • l00natyk #11 8 months ago

    Oh my! As I know PWE there will be gambling packs, mounts for £50, whole day of grinding to get one cash shop currency unit, patches implementing new bugs and not fixing old ones.
    They sold it to company that turns every game to pure milking machine after approx one year of luring players.
    Edited by l00natyk at 09/10/11 @ 21:17

  • hobojebus #12 8 months ago

    It sucks we know it sucks so we arnt even going to pretend its worth paying a sub for.

    Thats what i got from this article.