Neverwinter Nights 2 to Feature SpeedTreeRT
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Neverwinter Nights™ 2 to Feature SpeedTree®RT
COLUMBIA, SC Atari, Inc. (NASDAQ: ATAR) and game developer Obsidian Entertainment have licensed SpeedTree®RT for Neverwinter Nights™ 2, the highly-anticipated sequel to the revolutionary computer game that helped define the DUNGEONS & DRAGONS® genre of roleplaying games (RPG).
Neverwinter Nights 2 features a completely new, cutting-edge graphics system, overland map, engaging RPG storyline, and an original, powerful toolset that lets gamers create and share their own adventures and play them online with other gamers for limitless adventures. DUNGEONS & DRAGONS is under license from the Hasbro Properties Group, the intellectual property development arm of Hasbro, Inc. (NYSE: HAS).
(Beautiful, realistic and wind-blown trees will be essential to delivering the next-generation look and feel our players expect from this new game,) said Feargus Urquhart, CEO, Obsidian Entertainment. (We plan to push the standard of overall graphical excellence in Neverwinter Nights 2, and SpeedTree is key to those efforts.)
"SpeedTree from IDV was instrumental in the new rendering engine development of Neverwinter Nights 2. Its large tree database, support for wind, and simple software development kit gave us an incredibly realistic foliage solution quickly that looks and performs incredibly,) said Darren Monahan, executive producer, Obsidian Entertainment.
(We're extremely excited to see this level of detail and attention being paid to Neverwinter Nights 2 and are pleased with the results of what will be a worthy successor to one of the most coveted RPG games ever created,) said Jeff Burdeen, vice president of digital media for the Hasbro Properties Group.
Neverwinter Nights 2 will be published worldwide in September 2006.
Obsidian Entertainment was founded in 2003 by five game development veterans who've produced, programmed, and/or designed award-winning role playing games for companies such as Black Isle Studios, Blizzard Entertainment, Electronic Arts, Neversoft, and others. The California-based game developer has developed a number of popular titles, including Star Wars© Knights of the Old Republic® and Neverwinter Nights™. Obsidian Entertainment is currently working on two new titles, Star Wars® Knights of the Old Republic® 2: The Sith Lords™ and Neverwinter Nights™ 2.
About Atari
New York-based Atari, Inc. (Nasdaq: ATAR) develops interactive games for all platforms and is one of the largest third-party publishers of interactive entertainment software in the U.S. The Company's 1,000+ titles include hard-core, genre-defining franchises such as DRIVER™, The Matrix™ (Enter The Matrix and The Matrix: Path of Neo), Stuntman™ and Test Drive®; and mass-market and children's franchises such as Nickelodeon's Blue's Clues™ and Dora the Explorer™, and Dragon Ball Z®. Atari, Inc. is a majority-owned subsidiary of France-based Infogrames Entertainment SA (Euronext ISIN: FR-0000052573), the largest interactive games publisher in Europe. For more information, visit www.atari.com.
About the Hasbro Properties Group
The Hasbro Properties Group (HPG), the intellectual property development arm of Hasbro, Inc., (NYSE:HAS), translates one of the industry's richest portfolios of brands into a world of fun and excitement for children and adults globally. Through a host of publishing, digital media, lifestyle and entertainment platforms, HPG is able to surround fans worldwide with consumer products that expand Hasbro's core brands, such as TRANSFORMERS, LITTLEST PET SHOP, MY LITTLE PONY, MONOPOLY, G.I. JOE, TONKA and PLAYSKOOL.
SpeedTreeRT, winner of the 2005 Front Line Award for middleware, delivers highly realistic trees and plants, with adjustable wind effects, user-configurable and seamless LOD transitions, and an included library of hundreds of tree, plant and marine models representing more than 170 core species. SpeedTreeRT includes SpeedTreeCAD, a Windows application used to create and edit animated trees in real-time.
Interactive Data Visualization, Inc. (IDV), develops software products with a focus on real-time three dimensional applications for the game development, visual simulation, engineering visualization, and animation industries. IDV, a privately held corporation, was founded in 1999 in Columbia, South Carolina. For more information about IDV, visit www.idvinc.com.
