Neverwinter Nights 2: Ten More Years of Atari and D&D

According to Kotaku, NWN 2 Atari's parent company, Infogrames, has signed a new ten year deal with Hasbro Inc., owners of the Dungeons and Dragons license:

Neverwinter Nights fans rejoice! Atari parent company Infogrames and Hasbro signed a new agreement that extends property rights for the Dungeons & Dragons universe for ten more years, up until the year 2017. Atari has been doing a lovely job with Neverwinter Nights as well as the Baldur's Gate series, crafting some of the best D&D video games since the glory days of the SSI gold box titles. The agreement also sees Hasbro buying back the rights to several of their popular board games, including Scrabble, Risk, Battleship, Boggle, and Simon...perhaps fearing Atari would pull a Jenga on them.

And...

New Strategic Agreement With Hasbro Concerning The Dungeons & Dragons Franchise

DIGITAL GAMING RIGHTS TO BE SOLD BACK TO HASBRO FOR 19.5 MILLION US DOLLARS ($4,000,000 to be paid to Atari)

Lyon, France, July 18, 2007 - As part of the relaunch strategy announced by the Group on June 21 and the Group's plan to focus its investment on major franchises with significant potential, Infogrames Entertainment SA (Euronext 5257) today announced the signing of a new agreement with Hasbro concerning:

- the extension until 2017 of the exploitation of the intellectual property rights to the Dungeons & Dragons universe, under an exclusive license covering all interactive formats, including online and wireless.

The agreement covers all current and future products that are part of this universe, including NeverWinter Nights, Baldur's Gate, etc.

Two new games have already been announced for fiscal 2007-2008: NeverWinter Nights 2 Expansion Pack for PC and Dungeons & Dragons Tactics for PSP.

- the purchase by Hasbro of digital gaming rights (online and wireless) to nine franchises (Monopoly, Scrabble, Risk, Game of Life, Clue, Yahtzee, Battleship, Boggle and Simon), for 19.5 million dollars (*).