It's official: Out of all BioWare PC games, the NWN series are the only ones you still CAN'T buy digitially. Yet.

[Legacy_Inayity]

               

BioWare PC games list:
1996 - Shattered Steel - GOG.com
1998 - Baldur's Gate - GOG.com      
1999 - Baldur's Gate: Tales of the Sword Coast - GOG.com
2000 - MDK2 - BeamDog.com
2000 - Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn - GOG.com
2001 - Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal - GOG.com
2002 - Neverwinter Nights
2003 - Neverwinter Nights: Shadows of Undrentide
2003 - Neverwinter Nights: Hordes of the Underdark
2003 - Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic - Steam
2005 - Jade Empire - Steam
2007 - Mass Effect - Steam
2009 - Mass Effect Galaxy - iTunes
2009 - Dragon Age: Origins - Steam
2010 - Mass Effect 2 - Steam

Let's hope this dubious distinction doesn't last long.

Between the GOG.com and BeamDog.com digitial distribution networks I'm hoping there will be some way to buy this game online.  Soon.  Jeeze.  I mean, you can digitally buy Temple of Elemental Evil and Stonekeep for Tormsakes!

GOG's got a deal with Atari to release their back catalog and they've been tearing through that but no word on the fate of Neverwinter yet.  The company was spawned from CD Projekt, which did the Neverwinter Nights Polish translation(s) and later went on to license and modify the NWN Aurora engine to create The Witcher.  They announce new releases on Tuesdays and Thursdays and you can vote for Neverwinter Nights on the GOG.com "wish list".

BeamDog.com, whose founders (Trent Oster & Cameron Tofer) not only worked on Neverwinter Nights but they're also reworking the BioWare classic MDK2 with hi-res graphics and pixel shaders for a BeamDog.com release.  Hopefully they'd turn their sights to Neverwinter at some point- I can't imagine more competent group of folks to prepare NWN for a digital distribution than people who worked so closely on it.

If ever there was a time when the "planets were aligning" for a NWN digital release, I think this is it.  I just hope they or...somebody does it.  Earlier today I peeked at the old BioWare site and there were something like 1,200 folks playing on-line when I checked!  The game is simply that good.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Tren of Twilight Tower]

               That might not have anything to do with BW.  However, I agree.  It would be nice to have NWN available for digital purchase.  This especially if older titles are already available.



Tren
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_ffbj]

               It's probably something to do with the rights,  Atari and the fact it is based on D&D, not sure why but just speculation.  One of my old faves Age of Wonders was recently put up on GoG which gives many an opportunity to play this marvelous game.  Let's hope NwN hits one of these services soon.

As far as I know you can still get it in the stores, since I just picked up a back-up copy at Best Buy.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Dourtimes]

               Considering GOG are releasing three more Atari/Hasbro titles, and two of those are bound to be Icewind Dale 2 and Baldur's Gate 2, I'd be very surprised if the last wasn't Neverwinter Nights.



The question is whether or not it'll include the premium modules. A Neverwinter Nights Complete pack with the original game, both expansions and the DLC would be crazy value - and that's before you add in all the free content available on the Vault and PW servers.



That is unless anyone else can think of another D game that would fit alongside Temple of Element Evil, Planescape: Torment. the Baldur's Gates and the Icewind Dales in this series of releases.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Jenna WSI]

               Doesn't hurt to vote...
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Inayity]

               Good catch on the total number being released, Dourtimes.  As to NWN being the logical "fit" for the games GOG.com is releasing, I would agree.  I'm biased, of course!  However, realistically I could see a game like Dragonshard (which I think is also technically a contender as well) sneaking in to round out that pack of three.

I too would love to see the NWN "Buffet" (Diamond + All premiums) for sale as one package.  Lately I've gotten the chills thinking about how much cooperation would be required of EA in order for something "conventional" to work: They'd have to update the auth server (presumably) with new keys but also (in the case of premiums) tie those keys to premium purchases so everything authenticates correctly.  Atari dumped so much of maintaining NWN in BioWare's lap it's ridiculous so I'm not sure if Atari would even be able to set up a co-authentication site if they wanted to.

Then again, GOG.com has definitely (and legally, of course) cracked games to which they had distribution rights in order to get around DRM in order to sell it.  Apparently it is not uncommon for publishers to have very little in the way of source code, etc., for products they paid to have produced, especially after all these years.  In the last six months or so there have been a few posts from people asking very specific questions about really early or beta builds of NWN either for Windows or Linux.  Since I cannot fathom what use that specific information would have, and since I believe the server and the premium modules were cracked in some fashion by pirates long-ago, I'm hoping the only reason why someone would have a desire to track down such information so recently is because they were performing an analysis in preparation for a digitally-distributed version.

Now, that's just conjecture of course.  There are a number of "collectors" in the community and I could also see the same kinds of queries from people who were obsessive about having a copy, for instance, of every version of NWMain ever released.  Just like any form of collecting, it can reach a low-level mania which is hard to understand by outsiders.

But the mundane explanations, of course, are no fun!  '>
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Skunkeen]

               Before I and half the team was let go from the NWN Podcast I did some journalist research and found out from Floodgate Entertainment that EA owns the phone game versions of BG and NWN. No clue if any good but more interesting then Mass effect phone game.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_SuperFly_2000]

               Yeah..one could think this had something to do with the D&D license...but then...Baldurs gate is also released...so



I hope Atari does realise there is still money in this game....
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Zarhan Fastfire]

               I personally don't care if they release a game digitally, but they better be dang sure to keep it in a box, on the shelves. I refuse to pay $50 to download something that I won't have access to once the service dies and not even get the boxed copy, which I can pay $50 for down the street at Best Buy! I have experienced hosts going away far too many times over the years and know the truth about digital versions to waste my money. Heck even game hosting services die out! Let's see somebody play Lord of The Realm II or Lords of Magic online now that WON is gone. Yes, geeks like myself would setup a VPN over broadband, but I am sure most of you don't all have four Windows Server 2003 boxes running in your home!



It all boils down to this. You pay $50 for a game and start downloading it. I go buy it at a store. I am home and playing before most of you are done downloading. Next year when you buy a new computer and the host is gone, you're out of luck, while I keep right on playing due to my boxed set. I don't like that. I also KNOW it isn't morally right to charge $50 for the same thing you get in the store, only you don't get the installation media, box, or instructions. Let's not even get into the collector's editions!
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Inayity]

               

Zarhan Fastfire wrote...

I personally don't care if they release a game digitally, but they better be dang sure to keep it in a box, on the shelves...

Unfortunatey, Atari dropped all support for NWN in 2006.  From everything I can discern it would appear the last printing run of actual NWN: Diamond DVD's was some time (a year-ish?) ago.  I've checked all the places in my area, including the BestBuy and they don't have it in stock. I used to see it on the BestBuy website but it's been showing up as backordered for a month or two, now. IIRC.  NewEgg used to get in shipments of Diamond fairly regularly and it sold pretty well but, maybe, 6 months ago they sold their last batch and closed it out of their stock line.  So I'm not sure being able to go down to the store and just pick up a boxed copy will always be an option for most people.  It's not one for me now,

And is it just me or did anyone else notice the Diamonds on Amazon go up in price to around $30?!

I used to be really leery of places like Steam until I made my first Steam purchase and overall I've had good experiences with them.  I doubt I'd trust anyone else though.  A place like GOG.com is attractive because when you purchase a game from them you download the actuall game itself, and you can (and they encourage you to) burn that onto DVD as many times as you like so you can have it (essentially) forever.  No online authentication, like Steam.  Obviously, in NWN's case it would still (likely) require an authentication server for online play, but that's the way it has always been.

So in this case if it came to someplace like GOG.com for instance, it would both be considerably less expensive ($10-15), not include shipping like a mailorder place would, and I'd be able to burn off the installer/DVD for backups.  I would be a pretty happy customer at that point- again, seeing as I can't just stop by the store and pick up another copy.

As far as morality or ethics among video game publishers and most (save my example above) online digital retailers, well....
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Sharona Curves]

               Between Atari, Bioware, Floodgate, Hasbro, and WOTC . . There's alot of big players who gotta get paid.  It would be my guess that getting these 5 players at an agreement is what is causing a delay.  One Things for certain, On June 18, 2072 the original NWN is Public Domain.



Purchasing a game online(download) is just as good as buying it in B&M.  Both come packaged up.  Both require you to install.  Only difference with online purchases(downloads) is that you can make as many copies of the package file that you want.  That's a big difference for someone like me.  I like to have multiple copies in case a disc gets scratched or something else happens to my install media.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Avonos the Rogue]

               Unfortunately getting two people to agree on anything is
nearly impossible. If we have to get 5 companies to do anything; it sounds like
a virtual impossibility. My solution: everyone go buy a taser, we’ll get this
sorted one way or another.



On a side note, I would love to see NWN available for download. 
Hopefully they get their legal issues sorted out so NWN doesn’t disappear
entirely.
               
               

               

                     Modifié par Avonos the Rogue, 18 octobre 2010 - 06:01 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_Jfoxtail]

               More important or equally important question. I read a snipet that "inferred or suggested" that BG2 and IWD mods to the infinity engine do not work on the GOG games. This would primarily be the Gibberling 3 mods and other great content creators.



I cannot verify the accuracy of that claim.



I wonder if anyone knows if it would be true and secondly what would be the potential implication for NWN. It may be speculation ......



A digital NWN DRM free without the ability to add CEP, Q, CQ, Tony K's AI, OMB's Henchman, PRC, etc... well the game would practically be *yawn * of limited use.



Great for single player assuming the mod had no hacks I suppose. There were a few great ones such as Firestarter's Raveloft series ; but honestly by 2006 the number of high quality mods without hacks were few and far between.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Inayity]

               I took a look around the Baldur's forum on GOG and saw it looks like some mods work out of the box and some mods had to be changed.  The Gibberlings 3 look to have updated at least some of their mods (like the widescreen mod) to work with the GOG version.  I don't know what the details are on that or why that was necessary.

I don't see much of a connection between ease of modding for a GOG Baldur's, though, and a potential GOG NWN.  I can't imagine there would be any problems with mods or HAKs for NWN.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_TemplariDM]

               CEP has been part of the game any digital release would probably end up having to have it automatically and that might be the legal issues they are running into?? who knows